Many years ago, a Yup\u2019ik friend, the mayor of Chevak, told me of having shot repeatedly at a seal, which remained unharmed. Then he looked at me and said with awe, \u201cI think it was my spirit seal!\u201d Sixteen years ago, I saw the movie \u201cPay It Forward\u201d and never have forgotten its message.<\/p>\n
These two memories have influenced my behavior in the latter years of my life. A few weeks ago, as shipborne tourists crowded the streets downtown, I withdrew $200 from my bank account. My wife cautioned me against carrying that much money around, but I ignored her warning.<\/p>\n
Later, I was chatting with the pleasant clerk at a store downtown when a young woman walked in, looked at me, glanced at whatever she was holding in her hand, and asked my name. When I told her, she handed my billfold to me. Somehow I had lost it on the street. She\u2019d found it, picked it up, discovered my ID photograph, and tracked me down from shop to shop. All of the cash was still there. I quickly offered her $20, which she took reluctantly and disappeared.<\/p>\n
Now I kick myself! Was she a tourist, a local citizen or an earthbound angel? What was her name? How can I thank her enough? Why did I offer her only $20 when she had saved me more than $200? All I can do is pay her kindness forward, which I try to do with every opportunity that comes my way. Never will I be able to thank her adequately, but she inspired me to brighten other lives with good deeds. Among all the selfish people on earth, one such as she comes forward occasionally and renews my faith in humanity. Wherever you are, kind woman, I thank you for that. It took your selfless return of a lost billfold to heighten my sympathy for those less fortunate and to help them if I can.<\/p>\n
John d\u2019Armand,<\/strong><\/p>\n Auke Bay<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many years ago, a Yup\u2019ik friend, the mayor of Chevak, told me of having shot repeatedly at a seal, which remained unharmed. Then he looked at me and said with awe, \u201cI think it was my spirit seal!\u201d Sixteen years ago, I saw the movie \u201cPay It Forward\u201d and never have forgotten its message. These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23080"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}