The cycle of cause and effect isn’t that simple.
Exploring a new place far from home can be a lot to process sometimes. I’ve been traveling a lot recently, and I always seem to get in my head. I low-key miss the quiet of the Summer of 2020. Even though that was a sh*t year, I found so much joy in the small stuff. No one had FOMO about anything. We all had nothing else to do but to stay home. We appreciated what we had a little more and found adventure in our own backyards. So yeah, I’ve been a little overwhelmed with normalcy returning…can you blame me?
Which leads me to this shower thought that hasn’t left me: is karma a b*tch, or is that just an excuse for us to act out? If you are wondering what the karma meaning is, according to the dictionary is defined as: “the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.”
Are we really getting what's coming to us?
Personally, I don’t believe in karma.
It’s too transactional. It’s trying to get people to do good, when they just should do good in the first place and not because they fear negative consequences if they don’t. Sh*tty things happen to people who do good deeds, that's just life. It doesn't mean they deserved it.
Do the right thing, even if you don’t get anything out of it.
I had a classmate in college, and before a final critique his work wasn’t on the wall. If your work isn’t hanging, you automatically fail. I was already done and saw him in the studio still cutting boards just minutes before the deadline. I went over, said “give me something to cut,” and started helping him. We finished in time, and instead of thanking me, he said, “why did you help me?”
I replied, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
That one interaction has stuck with me over the last decade from time to time. It made me realize that people don’t expect you to do the right thing – that doing the right thing was actually questioned. Did he think that I had some ulterior motive? Probably. I don’t think he would have helped me if the roles were reversed, but that shouldn't stop me from supporting him.
The karma meaning is to treat someone how you want to be treated.
TBH the world's been a bit of a dumpster fire lately. Thank goodness for memes on the internet to send to our friends to lighten the mood.
I don’t know what it’s like to walk in anyone else’s shoes but my own, so who TF am I to judge someone? Hannah Montana spoke the truth when she said “nobody’s perfect,” okay?! If you f*ck up, don’t hate yourself for it. Everything isn’t an eye for an eye. If it was, who would actually be left standing?
Gonna go hold the door open for somebody now.
Be good,
JB
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