Recently, a friend sent me a book to read, and asked that I pass it along to someone else after reading.

The more I thought about it, the more profound the request seemed.

This was the book given to me, which I am now passing along to you, by virtue of this essay.

I usually keep the books I buy and read. They make up my “collection” and I enjoy just looking at them on the shelf, occasionally remembering their stories which they tell by their presence in my own library. There is joy for me amongst these old “friends”.

The thought of passing along a book to the next guy is not something I’ve done that often. Sure, I’ve given books as gifts to family and friends. Inevitably, these books are new, perhaps with a small note written in them, wishing the recipient good health, love, adventure, and such.

But reading books and then passing them on– not so much. Never gave it a second thought. So my friend’s suggestion was surprisingly novel (pun intended). This friend instructed me to read the book and then pass it on to someone new. He asked that I add my own notes and comments on its content, my reading experience, and maybe even just how I was feeling when I read the book.

My imagination carried this suggestion to another level: what if the next person did the same, passed it over, marked it up, down, and through again with multitudes of readers following suit through the years, maybe even exchanging replies in the margins. The book might even end up in one of those free libraries consisting of a box on a stick in front of someone’s house, with a sign that says, “please help yourself to these books”.

Can you imagine how cool it might be to discover this old book, its dog-eared pages turned golden by the years, thoughts scribbled on the inside pages, maybe a few annotated musings or doodles throughout. It would be an entirely different reading experience. A human experience of sharing without transaction, expectations, want, or need. A discovery of the kindness of giving, just because.

I wonder if there are other things like this I could do? Actions and deeds which do not involve grabbing, clutching, collecting, or keeping. This type of endeavor seems to me to be a certain kind of kindness, which does not keep score, and indeed, will never even know the outcome.

What would be the purpose of this? That's the point: to not focus on the purpose, so much as the action, and the only reward the joy of passing joy to someone else.

Most of us are not taught to do things this way. I know I was not. I have been so intentional, focused on cause and effect to calculate the score sheet of the zero sum game. So, could it be that the purpose of any act of passing it along to the next is to allow ourselves to pass through the veil of zero sum, ever so briefly, into a realm where there is no need, no reward, nor even any requirement for a reply.

It’s an invitation to a departure from the scoresheet mentality, and an act of liberation from the constraints that bind us to a world of give and take.

Can you imagine?

As John Lennon once wrote, “It's easy, if you try.”

Passing It Along