What goes around comes around. Karma. We all know about that, right? I was thinking about it today because a recent conflict with my internet provider. After 5 weeks of no internet service (!) I finally got tough with my provider and read them the riot act in a calm voice with no cursing. I figured it wasn’t appropriate to go postal on them but they needed to know that their customer service and technical service was really bad. This is a tough thing for an amiable person to do. 
The point being that whomever dropped the ball was inadvertantly teaching me a lesson about patience and about standing up for myself at the same time. I think I did okay. Maybe they are going to learn a lesson about how it feels to not get the help you need.
Then I heard on the radio today that Van Morrision never received any royalties for his most popluar song, “Brown-Eyed Girl” because he signed a bad record deal without consulting a lawyer. To this day he has never received a penny for that song or the album it was on. I’m sure he learned a lesson, just as I’m sure the cheating record producer who took advantage of him will learn his own lesson about being cheated.
I was thinking that it’s really amazing how we live our lives learning from each other and either growing or not growing as a result. We get to interact with exactly the people we need to in order to learn what we need to learn in this life. The key is to pay attention so you don’t have to get the same lesson over and over again. As Stevo is fond of saying, if you don’t listen to the whispers you get the shout. The whispers are a lot easier to deal with.
In the great documentary “The History of the Eagles” (a major part of my youth, that band) Joe Walsh talks about a philosopher he read who said when you’re going through your life it may seem chaotic and confusing, but when you look back on your life it looks like a finely crafted novel. I just love that idea that all these random events do really have a purpose.
Yesterday I received a bit of local wisdom from a guy who held the door for me at the hardware store. When I thanked him he said “It doesn’t cost anything to be kind”. For sure.
~ Dooney
