Positive Karma

I’m not sure whether I believe in karma or not, but I think it’s a nice idea. Lots of people believe that doing right for right’s sake is good enough and I’m one of them. But karma, or we could call it Galactic Justice, introduces accountability into the mix. It lets me think that someone, or something (maybe a big computer), is keeping a tally. When I was a kid I believed that that someone was Santa Claus. Now I have no idea.

But I had what felt like an experience in positive karma yesterday. It was a regular day at work. One fellow walked into the office while I was checking my e-mail. He was writing a memo inviting folks to a health-related event and wanted me to proof-read it. We don’t work together but I’m always eager to seem useful, so I looked it over for him. He was grateful. Then later the same day, another colleague walked into the office. She’s taking a class at the College of the Marshall Islands, the local community college, and had a question about a concept that would be discussed in her lecture that day.

Gestalt

I knew it was related to psychology and surmised it was of German origin, but I couldn’t explain what it meant. So I jotted the word down and said I’d get back to her within the hour. I punched in the web address for Wikipedia and waited…. (the Internet connection here is quite slow). Eventually I was able to find an entry on Gestalt Psychology. I read and half-understood. I printed the entry and gave it to my colleague, explaining what I now thought the term meant.

She smiled and said, “Kommol.”

I smiled back, “Jouj!”

That made my day. I racked up some points. I have a simple way of judging good days from bad ones (not to be conflated with happy vs sad days).

Here is the equation I use:

A = b(z)/p³ - ߪ + z/p³


Just kidding.

I have no formula. But I essentially do judge whether I contributed more than I took. Some days I’m karma-positive, like yesterday. Other days, I’m karma-neutral, like when I lay in a hammock reading all day, abstaining from kicking any dogs. Occasionally I’m karma-negative, like when I’m grumpy all day, thus spreading a negative vibe.

Back to yesterday, the day could have ended, and like I said, I racked up a couple of points in the right column. But when I got home I decided to do a little yard work. So I borrowed a neighbor’s machete and was getting ready to chop up some weeds.
(Note: I learned that killing weeds, to my surprise, doesn’t give me positive karma. Go figure.)

But a bunch of little kids had gotten into the compound. They were students of my friend Tim, who’s a volunteer at the elementary school close by. He runs an after-school fitness club with his best students (as a reward they get to hang out with him one afternoon a week) but yesterday they were mostly interested in fooling around. So a few of them knocked on Ali’s and my door and we answered with some surprise. When I stepped out to start weed whacking, several decided that they would help. It was really sweet. Three together held the trash bag and another girl started pulling weeds independently. After we filled 2 trash bags I was satisfied and thanked them.


Good karma paying me back or just good luck?


Like I said, I don’t know, but karma is a nice idea.