Blame It on the Weather
Imagine a world without balance. A world without laws, limits, or consequences. Could such a world exist? Beats me, but I’m not focusing on worlds in this entry, I’m more interested in this balance. The Chinese already had concepts about balance or duality hence the popular Yin and Yang symbol. And though I haven’t consulted any expert about this, I believe this balance is indeed universal. There always seems to be this universal balance governing us. This balance is described by expressions like “what goes up, must come down” and “what goes around, comes around.” But aside from physics, is there a supernatural balancing force that acts on us? In other words, is there really karma? As for me, I really believe karma is real, and that it works in subtle ways to reward and/or punish.
Just earlier today, this morning to be exact, I was struggling to get out of bed at 6:30 so I wouldn’t be late for Judo practice with Rein and Yogi at 8. Anyway, so I readied my clothes and set out from Cervini with my iPod to keep me company. Just when I was nearing the Cov Courts parking lot, something I least expected caught my eye – the view. It was spectacular with the tender, almond-tinted 7 o’clock light gently caressing the bark of the trees along the sidewalk, casting the long shadows of their tapered branches on the browning grass. Not many people consider this something to rejoice about, but, at that point, I considered myself lucky to see a sight like that. It’s amazing how something so simple could produce something so beautiful.
So what on earth has this to with karma? Well later today, as I was checking up on this blog, it appears someone has been deleting some comments AGAIN. I mean, I love democracy and all, especially the right to express oneself, but seeing this blatant act of censorship just sickens me. It sickens me to the core. Woe to all those who have been silenced by this mystery person. Personally, I enjoyed reading the comments at that blog. Anyway, going back to karma, I attributed this upset to counter my good fortune of seeing that particular scene this morning. Wait, but there’s more!
Last saturday I was at The Fort with my blockmates chilling in front of Pier One. Then as I was looking down, I saw two pieces of paper: one of them was an advertisement for some concert while the other one, folded, seemed to look like a 100P bill. I took it from the ground and looked at it closely, for it was dark in that area. It WAS a 100P bill. Now what are the odds of that? Me finding a 100P bill on the floor in The Fort before anyone else did? The odds are ridiculous. Ah, but there still is karma, and I was wondering what could possibly go wrong on a night like this. A couple of minutes later it rained (note that we were all formal because we just came from a debut), and Pier One was full. Looks like Nature has a sense of humor after all.
This one incident happened a long time ago, but it was one of the main events that influenced my belief that there is this karma-like force acting upon us. Back when I was in high school, I played Diablo II: Lord of Destruction online with my brother at Battle.Net. Things were going fine. We both got level 89-ish characters, but we were not satisfied. Our greed for items and runes was unsatiable; so we wanted more, more, more all the time. And that’s how the scamming started. We devised “scam tactics” where we could efficiently swindle an unwitting n00b of his precious items and laugh about it afterwards. Then we started scamming on our own. Things were going fine, business was good, but then something happened to my brother. He got scammed…BIG TIME. He lost one of his most precious runes and thus he told me about his “Theory of the Balancing Universe,” which he believes with all his heart (he still uses a maphack though). I believed it as well, since I, too, got scammed big time in Diablo.
Although karma is a Hindu belief, my being Catholic isn’t at all compromised by me believing in karma. In some ways it makes me think twice before acting. I think of karma as force that deals bad things to bad people, hence I stopped scamming people in Diablo II. Similarly, I believe karma can deal good things to good people. But for people who don’t do anything at all (like me in my first two anecdotes), karma is like a balance between good luck and bad luck, suffering and joy. An example would be when you devote a load of time helping your friend with, say, his paper, I believe that some joy will come to you in the future. So basically, I believe in a balance, or karma in my life, though I cannot prove it.
Random fact: the title of this entry is from the song Call it Karma by Silverstein
Your concept of karma is surprisingly different from the concept I know it to be. I’m more familiar with Karma as cause and effect. Good brings what’s better and evil brings about worse things. It’s more of a reciprocation rather than the balance that you refer to.
Interesting.
Ah yes. Thanks for the mentioning it mam. I’m referring to reciprocation in this entry.
I agree with Miss Frances’ reply. Just because something good happens doesn’t mean something bad should happen. If you do something good now, does that mean that you can do something bad later? Maybe. >:) Wahahaha…
Something bad happens to those who are deserving of misfortune. Unless they do something good, they won’t be getting any freebies. I believe that sometimes fate will make you experience misfortune, but if you bear it silently, you will be merited with good fortune.
I can’t wait to hear some comments from Iron Man. hahaha. Iron Man and Steel… they combine forces!!! The ALLOY GANG!
Roll? from Rockman? haha I loved that game.
Anyway in my third anecdote I did something bad (scamming), then something bad happened to me (I got scammed big time). So it’s not that if I do something good, I can do something bad. It’s more like if I do something good, good things will happen to me (same goes for doing bad things), and that’s why I stopped scamming people in Diablo. I view karma as a force that rewards of punishes.
Well, as for the first and second anecdotes, I didn’t do anything in particular. It was like a balance in good luck and bad luck. I hope this clears some stuff up. And I’ll do some minor editing so this won’t confuse people in the future. Thanks!
almond-tinted 7 o’clock light…haha…wanna see that someday if I ever get to wake up that early without having to rush to my 7:30am class!
)
SUMMARY
Denis started with an involving statement. He further involved his readers by asking a question in the introduction. Then, he narrowed his ideas on balance and arrived at his thesis that he believes in karma.
He illustrated his thesis by discussing the balance of the beauty of the morning opposed by the sickening censorship. He experienced these on the same day. Then, he discussed the balance that occurred when he was at The Fort. His last anecdote was a karma. The scam he did went back to him at a greater degree.
ASSESSMENT
-The entry showed time and effort. The anecdotes were written in a way that I could picture out the experience he had. His experiences were narrated in an interesting way.
-The entry is written in an organized way. There was a smooth flow of ideas in a paragraph. There were also easy transitions to succeeding paragraphs.I am just a bit confused since I think it is only the third anecdote that is “karma”. Maybe, the author tackled the general balance that karma can be classified into.
-The topic is interesting since almost everyone experienced this “karma”.I think most people could relate to this entry.
Summary
Dennis believes that Karma exists. Karma for him is natural balancing of good and bad things. He narrated his experiences when he was in the parking lot and the the fort. He also narrated his experiences on someone’s blog and his brothers Diablo II character. He then ended the blog by saying “believe in a balance, or karma in my life, though I cannot prove it.”
Assessment
-The entry showed time and effort. He has written his anecdotes well. He clearly expressed his emotions in every single anecdote.
-The transition of the entry was good.
-The topic “Karma” is good. However, isn’t karma defined as “if you do bad, you will get bad things. Moreover, when you do good, you get good things.”
Please delete The ice”s comment. I just made a mistake putting the ice as the commentator name.
Silverstein…aren’t they emo? XD
that’s the only song I know of Silverstein. So I wouldn’t know. haha