Karma and the Way We See Things

A friend of mine posted on facebook that someone who used to harrass and assault him when he was in highschool was killed, and he was unsure how he should feel about it. A lot of comments to his post attribute the death to karma, and I feel that's putting a biased human slant on a universal effect.

Karma does not judge. It does not take revenge. Karma is cause and effect, period. There is no malice involved. A lot of people think that karma is another word for divine judgement, but it is not meant to be. We like to think that the universe is going to right all the wrongs done to us, but that's simply not the way of things. We like to think we will be rewarded for the good we do, but that's also not the way of things. We, as flawed humans, cannot see things from all angles.

I told my friend that we can't hold people in judgement for things done to us when we were all young and stupid. None of us are above that. That person may have had people who loved and cared for him. Would they "deserve" to go through this loss because of a mistake made many years ago? No. Of course not.

It is us who need to let go. We need to put aside the trivial grievances of the past, or how else will those wounds heal? We need to think on a wider scale and not lay down judgement upon a person based on one instant in their lives.

The decision to rejoice in this death is my friend's. I hope he takes something from what I have said to him, no matter how hard it may be to hear. I personally don't feel happy, or sad ragarding this. I just feel that a life too close to my own age was wasted.

St. Valentine's Day

Let me begin by saying that I'm tired of snow. We got two back-to-back blizzards here, and walls of snow outside. I'm hoping the following rant can warm me up and help me relax as I start the day's events:

I love how holidays have now become orgies of debt and stress underlaid by a wave of guilt. I mean this with all sarcasm.

It almost seems as if the point of St. Valentine's Day is to ostracize single people entirely; and drive those who are not single mad with stress over buying the "perfect" (translated as "most expensive") gift for their loved one, or guilt for not giving in to the madness. I know people who will look at you like you're an alien for not celebrating the day, and even try to guilt you into either finding a significant other, or buying the one you have a gift.

There are actual television advertisements showing a woman being given a gift by her significant other, but rejecting it because it wasn't the product being advertised. Seriously? Do you know what it's called when love has a price tag? Prostitution.

This year, as every other St. Valentine's Day in my lifetime, I am rejecting the madness. I will not be stressing over the fact that I'm single, or going into debt to buy diamond-encrusted jewelry and expensive candy. (As a side note, maybe it's only me, but I hate a lot of modern jewelry. Diamonds should not look like an infestation of barnacles.) I will not be swayed by St. Valentine's Day pimps trying to get me to put a price on love.

Today is Theogamia, the celebration marking the marriage of Hera and Zeus. I'm going to doll myself up and escort the Divine Bride to her Bridegroom.

Later folks.