And the Walls came tumbling down

Kathleen Anderson

I might have mentioned before that my all-time favorite holiday is one that most people probably are not aware of.

National Random Acts of Kindness is celebrated every February 17. It originated in 1995 in Denver, Colorado and in 2004, it spread to New Zealand. The idea behind this celebration is to make the world a little brighter and better through little and simple kind gestures, words and actions.

It appeals to me because it is random and can also be a delicious secret kept to yourself – a simple act of kindness, perhaps to a total stranger, and then played forward.

Tumwater resident and author Jim Callahan wrote his book, “Walls: The Boundaries We Establish for Our Minds Are the Greatest Walls in Our Lives”, in 1993 while living in his home state of Pennsylvania. He explains the level of satisfaction one can gain from this practice with the following:

Pass it Along Times Two:

Consider working for me for 30 days and choose which of the following pay plans you prefer:

Plan #1 -  $100,000 for the 30 days.

Plan #2 - Your pay starts with one penny a day and doubles each day for 30 days. Day 1 $.01            Day 2 $.02   Day 3 $.04 Day 5 $.16 and so on.

Which did you choose?

If you picked Plan #1, you’d get $100,000.

If you picked Plan #2, you’d have $5,368,709.12 at the end of the month.

Pass it along

”Pass it along. Starting today, become aware each day of doing two caring and considerate things for another person while expecting nothing in return,” Callahan writes, adding, “When the person says ‘Thank you,’ simply respond with  ‘You’re welcome. Pass it along times two.’ Briefly explain the concept. If the chain continues, on the 30^th day, 536,870,912 people will have someone doing a caring and considerate thing for them while expecting nothing in return.”

“Seemingly there is little chance of the chain continuing for the full 30 days; however, we have no way of knowing how far it will go and what positive impact it will have on the world,” according to Callahan.

“Certainly, the focus of PASS IT ALONG TIMES TWO will affect how we intersect with the people we encounter and we will make the world a better place,” he continued.

Callahan’s book and accompanying workbook has become a blueprint for mentoring, used by universities, juvenile detention centers, state correctional facilities and other youth programs across the country.

It deals with discovering walls we have built for ourselves and accepted by others and, best of all, how to tear them down. Be aware that “Walls” does not offer answers but asks the questions we need to discover how to live our best lives.

Callahan states,” Some years ago, I was conducting sessions using my book as the focal point for interactive sessions with inmates at the Graterford Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania. They participated in a program called PAR (Prisoners Against Recidivism), started by and run by inmates.

“One of the inmates asked me how I could get my program out to the kids in his community. When I asked him to explain his question, he told me my approach didn’t tell him he was wrong or somehow a bad person but allowed him to consider some valuable issues that he had not considered before.

“He felt if he had considered these issues before, he may have made better choices and stayed out of prison. He wanted to offer the same opportunity to kids on the street to keep them from making the same mistakes he made.

“The other 35 members of the group agreed with his evaluation of our efforts. This conversation was the birth of my book becoming a mentoring program”.

The importance of our truth and identifying our values are essential steps in discovering who we are and what we want to become. And we are never too old to begin.

I cannot begin to cover all the valuable information in this book and program. Simply put, “Walls” is based on the belief that life is not a series of unrelated random events. There is a process as to how people gather and evaluate information and make the choices that direct their life.

Check it out for yourself, for free, online at this website.

Kathleen Anderson writes this column each week from her home in Olympia.  Contact her at  kathleen@theJOLTnews.com or post your comment below.