Passing It Forward

An article this morning give just praise to Alan Bennett for donating all his works to the Bodlean Library that Oxford institution that houses copies of most of the world's literary heritage. Mr Bennett is reported to have told of his relief as the notes, manuscripts and jottings of a lifetime disappeared off down the road. His rationale seems to have been, partly at least, that his education was State funded so he felt that this selfless donation was almost a duty to give back. Bravo Bennett and more power to your literary elbow, may we be reading many many more of you gems in the future.

Fresh from that uplifting moment I come across this item via Digg, in which some anonymous stranger has bought, at auction, a repossessed house in the States only to give it back to the owner from whom it was repossessed. How cool is that?

It just goes to show that perhaps that sixties idealism didn't die out after all; that a seed of it still survives and is just now ready for germination in this financially turbulent time. Now that the ethos of unfettered greed is being reappraised perhaps the idea of community and collective responsibility is an idea whose time had come.