Perspective and Karma

Life is never as bad as you think it is. It's all perspective.

One of my favorite anecdotes on the topic of perspective is about my high school friend, Jason. (If you know me and have heard this one, skip to the next section...) Jason had the worst facial acne I have ever seen outside of the special effects in a horror movie. Really. And he knew it. He knew exactly how bad he looked and it chipped away at his self esteem every damn day I knew him. One day when we were walking down Duke street in Norfolk (we went to high school in Va Beach...GREEN RUN! Okay...that blast of school spirit was a lie, totally faked...sorry.) As we headed down the street, he wallowing in self pity, I trying to pull him out of it and failing miserably...we came up to a guy begging on a corner. He had no legs, from the mid thigh down...nothing. Zip. Nada. It was a total void...legless...Jason stood staring at the guy for a few moments before taking out a twenty, handing it to the guy, mechanically turning and walking away. He said to me simply "Wow, my problems don't mean jack..." I thought he had finally won. But then Jason and I heard 'Ol Legless behind us say to the other beggar sitting next to him, "Jesus CHRIST! Did you see that guys FACE?"

Saturday I saw a kid (neighbors had a birthday party for their eight year old...) go up to another kid and push him down. When the downed boy tried to stand up, the aggressive kid pimp smacked him back down. I was about to intervene, along with several other parents; but then he got shit on by a HUGE bird. (Might have been one of the many raptors we have in the neighborhood...) This kid looked for a moment like Carrie on stage at the Prom...all covered in runny bird poo instead of pigs' blood. And all the kids at the party started laughing at him. Three kids said, almost in unison, "Serves you RIGHT, CJ!"

I've never been a big believer in Karma; but coincidence will only take me so far.

Enjoy your day!
Cheers;
Muin