Seven Pounds: paying your dues up front

August 7, 10:49 AMDC Media ExaminerJ.Quyen Nichols

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Most things in this world aren’t free. Even the most simple and genuine things come at a price. In some cases, it’s hard to pay the dues in return for what you’re receiving. But naturally, the converse also proves true- there are some things for which it comes easy to pay.

When you go to the doctor’s office, you receive services which only your doctor can provide to you. After the services have been rendered, you pay up. When you go to the auto-shop, a mechanic repairs whatever problem there is with your vehicle, and once again, you pay up. When you break a traffic law and an officer of said law catches you, you’re going to pay up- in most cases it’s going to be a hefty fine.

As previously stated, there are some things in life which often come as a pleasure to pay for. Love is the most sincere and prime example of this. It’s easy to spend money on something your love; but it is even easier to spend money for someone you love.

That’s just the way things work. It governs society and its citizens within a system of action/reaction- give/take.

Even the simplest things which don’t outwardly appear to be rooted in this system come with a cost. For example, when you walk outside to pick up your mail, you are spending time and in return receiving mail. This may not seem like such a big deal but for most people, time is more valuable than a monetary amount. However, spending that time to go out to the mailbox is perhaps one of the most important aspects of life.

It’s a proven fact that most people feel better spending money on experiences than on material goods. This follows with the idea of paying for something you love. For experiential purposes, you are paying for memories- experiences. And these experiences have more power to make you feel good than any material object out there. These experiences also create a sense of personal identity in a world filled with commercialism where people’s sense of self is often thrown to the wind in order to have the latest and greatest.

The man you find talking about how much fun he had in his new car with his friends on a road trip is going to be a lot happier than the man who is talking about how much money he put into his new red convertible with such-and-such horsepower.

In the film Seven Pounds, written by Grant Nieport, directed by Gabriele Muccino, and starring Will Smith and Rosario Dawson, this whole idea of paying dues reaches a new level. In fear of spoiling the film too much, this article won’t go into much detail as the movie is very much made by the great reveal near the end (although it is fairly easy to predict right from the beginning).

Although Seven Pounds takes this notion of give/take a bit far, the idea stands very strong. If you have received some kind of gift or blessing- material or immaterial- you should step up and give back in some way. Generosities as such can be seen everywhere. If someone holds the door open for you, give back with a smile and a “thank you”. If you get a card in the mail, go ahead and give a letter back. In conversation, instead of talking all about yourself and taking all of the conversation give the other person some time to talk. It’s the simple things which most often mean the most.

On the other side, receiving something little and giving back something big is often what makes you feel the best. The world is filled with little blessings. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, it’s hard to ignore that there are some amazing things going on all around us. Medical mysteries are perhaps the most prominent of these blessings. Since society and the universe permit such blessings, there is no harm in giving something back. If anyone close to you has beaten a disease (once understood to be impossible), don’t hesitate to give back. There are societies established everywhere that are designed just for that purpose.

If you do this, you will find that you will become a much better person. You will in turn affect the lives of numerous people. Sometimes the best thing to do is listen- everyone has a story to tell and each one is guaranteed to be different than the last.

Through all this talk of giving and taking- spending and receiving- it’s important to not forget that the most important things will always be those which cannot be bought. Now take a moment to think about what or who has given you the most and then ask yourself what you’ve done about it. So, what’s your next move?