Scientifically speaking, gravity is a bitch! Gravity is a force of nature that we just learn to deal with in our daily lives and although at times gravity is a good thing; as a person who enjoys the game of golf I can tell you that the game is so much easier when the ball eventually lands on the ground rather than continues into the stratosphere after I hit it! But the realities of gravity mean that occasionally it will bite you in the ass, or at the least cause your ass to sag when you reach a certain age. Nonetheless, like gravity there are forces that I can't control in life, some are proven scientific theories like gravity and some are more religious theory like Karma.
Karma is described in Indian Religions as the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. I do not practice Hinduism or Buddhism, but as I grow older I subscribe more to the idea that making positive decisions and doing positive things has a positive effect on my future. I do not believe that a higher being exists that keeps a ledger of good and bad and that based on the running total of my behavior he/she doles out good things like candy. But I do think that when you make good choices and behave positively your mindset becomes more positive and with a positive mindset, inherently more positive things happen to you.
Okay so given that, I think I am mostly a good person. If the size of the proverbial angel on one shoulder and devil on the other is a key indicator of a persons relative goodness or badness, my angel would be much larger than my devil. In fact I think my angel could kick my devil's ass in a fair fight!Not to say that I don't have a devilish streak (just ask my wife), but I usually make decisions that are not selfish; I am considerate of everyone around me; and I always trying to do the right thing.
It seems however, that my Karma ledger has more bad than good on it of late. Not sure why, but I seem to have hit a streak of nasty over the last few months. I am not sure how to classify this nastiness either because my bad luck has come almost entirely mechanically. In other words, all the mechanical things around me seem to be self destructing. In the past six months I have lost a flat screen TV, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a washing machine, and my wife's car has needed repair work that has cost more than $3K. How do you explain all this? It could just be that appliances and automobiles are crap these days. It seems they make them now so that you have to replace them every five years (all my appliances are five-years old or less because they were purchased new when we built our house), or it could be that the Karma god of all things mechanical, I'll call him the Gadget God, is pissed at me!
These mechanical challenges coupled with the other current life challenges that I have discussed (work, health, and kids) at times is overwhelming. I need to change my Karma so I have to change my behavior towards mechanical things and try to appeal to the god of all gadgets. So now before I go to bed each night I repeat the following prayer in an effort to change my Mechanical Karma:
Our Fathers in Silicone Valley and Detroit,
hallowed be your name.
Your gears and bytes come,
your mechanisms will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily conveniences,
and forgive us our laziness,
as we also have forgiven our ineptness.
And lead us not into electronic darkness,
but deliver us from Sears
This ought to work, but if not I have the fortune cookie message that I got this week to fall back on. It said "Your luck will completely change this week" and this happened the same day that I found a quarter in a parking lot! Nothing can stop me now, unless my car dies!
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