You Are Not an Agent of Karma

I found the above title in my idea notebook yesterday, and thought, well, yes, this is true. Unfortunately I didn’t capture any of the reflections that went along with the title, so I’ve no real idea what I was planning on saying about it. It’s too good a title to waste, though, so there it is.

If I recall correctly, it had to do with making the bad behavior of others an excuse for bad behavior of one’s own. I have an image of an expensive car parked across two parking spaces, and an annoyed passerby keying the side the car “just to show ’em.” I can’t remember where that came from; it might have been in a book I was reading.

But the point is, I think, that even if the jerk has it coming to him I don’t get to give it to him. Sure, what goes around comes around, but if it’s wrong it’s wrong for me to bring it with me….no matter how satisfying or fitting it might seem to be.

In short, trying to be an agent of karma is bad karma (or, at least, it would be if there was such a thing as karma).