My baby brother, who might object to being called a baby now given he's married with 4 kids of his own, has gone back to school. He's decided he wants to be a history teacher and I'm so proud of him. That however, is a tale for another day...his recent writing topic has had me thinking for some time now.
He had to write a persuasive paper on a topic of his choice arguing both sides of the equation His topic...karma? What is it and why or why it does or doesn't exist...I know brilliant subject right? I told you I was proud of him...this is one of many reasons why. You wouldn't know it by his lifestyle but he's quite a thinker...he and I have some of the most engaging conversations and this was one of them.
He came to me for writing advice given I'd been an English major and all (not that you can tell that from the NUMEROUS errors in this blog...thankfully I'm not submitting it for a grade) and I've found my thoughts drifting to his subject several times since.
Karma is essentially the concept of what goes around comes around but honestly does it? Can we influence our future by our choices today? To some degree yes. But the concept that there is this inevitable sort of cosmic ether in which our choices are repaid to us in the future is not something I believe. While I do believe that we can determine our course by our choices, I don't believe in karma. Life has shown me that what goes around doesn't always come around, but then I'm not always sure it should either.
Take Ex Knight for example, the karma theory implies that since he treated us so poorly, someone's gonna do the same thing to him but I doubt that will honestly happen. I really hope it doesn't happen; I wouldn't wish what we endured at the hands of Ex Knight on even he himself., let alone anyone else. Karma also doesn't explain how good things happen to bad people or how bad things happen to good people. At least not in my opinion.
I think that we all have our own free will. This is what members of my faith often refer to as agency and is something God has placed in all of us. I think we are all in control of our OWN agency whether we use it well or not and how "destiny" is determined then, is by how we act and react to the use of agency, ours and that of others.
A Sunday School teacher I had years ago said a few things that have stuck with me through the years. She says that everyone is good for something...even if it's just a bad example (Ex Knight is the PERFECT bad example), and we can determine our consequence by the choices we make. Choices have consequences, that's what I've taught my children...I just don't believe they have karmalistic (yes you can use my word) type consequences. And, we don't get to choose the consequences of our behavior EXCEPT by altering our choice.
I can see you scratching your head and hear you thinking "what does she mean by that"...I did the same thing when I heard it the first time so it's ok. Here's an example...one of the consequences for not doing chores in my house is the inablity to play outside. The consequence of doing chores is then the converse of this. My children do not pick the consequences of chores...I do. They can however, determine whether or not they will do them and receive good or bad consequences.
For me, the idea of karma just does not make sense because not everyone gets what they deserve...at least not in this life. Lord knows my children have never done anything to deserve what Ex-Knight did. Sometimes, people never get what they deserve in life...I do believe though we'll all get our "just reward" eventually. If then, what goes around comes around EVENTUALLY and we will all get what we deserve in the end (ie judgment) then maybe karma does exist...some will call it karma; however, I know this as the love of a perfectly just Heavenly Father.
I think Thimbletack has left the Spiderwick mansion and taken residence up with my family. On any day of the week, we can set something down only for it to disappear and reappear somewhere else as if by magic. It happens with ALL sorts of things too...keys, shoes, my purse, scrapbooking tools, the phone, Pinky our digital camera, and the list goes on and on...
