I got your address, and I hope I’ll be mailing you something within the next couple of weeks.

“I don’t know how the meme got to crafters though!”

It doesn’t surprise me actually, there’s a fairly big crafting/SF fandom crossover. Thanks for all the information, honey, I’d no idea that Heinlein came up with the phrase although I suppose the concept itself is fairly closely related to things like Buddhist idea of karma.

One place I see PIF is on Etsy.com - there it’s used as a wonderful tool by members to help new sellers start on the selling ladder. Different makers have PIF items in their stores that they can ’sell’ to start finding new collectors, just get a few notches on their Etsy belt, and then pass on the experience to another Etsian. It’s a very community approach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward
“Pay it forward or paying it forward refers to repaying the good deeds one has received by doing good things for other unrelated people.

Many people mistakenly believe the phrase “pay it forward” as a moral philosophy first appeared in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel Pay It Forward, which in 2000 was adapted into a Warner Brothers film, Pay It Forward. Science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, however, used the phrase in Between Planets, a book published in 1951, almost 50 years before Ryan Hyde’s novel.

Heinlein both preached and practiced this philosophy; now the Heinlein Society, a humanitarian organization founded in his name, does so.

One of the most vocal popularizers of the concept of paying it forward — before Hyde’s book and movie — is probably author Spider Robinson, who made repeated reference to the doctrine, attributing it to his spiritual mentor Heinlein.

In Ryan Hyde’s book and movie it is described as an obligation to do three good deeds for others in repayment of a good deed that one receives. Such good deeds should be things that the other person cannot accomplish on their own. In this way, the need to help one another can spread exponentially through society, creating a social movement with the goal of making the world a better place.

In practice the philosophy of pay it forward has broadened relative to its literary roots, and now stands for a more general social responsibility and desire to help others in recognition of the help one has received for one’s self. It is also sometimes described as being “good for a favor”, meaning a willingness to help others (even strangers) on the expectation that it will all come back around in the end.”

I don’t know how the meme got to crafters though!