tell 'em why you mad son

Karma: (Merriam Webster) The force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.

(Urban Dictionary) Some say it’s a bitch.

I could probably think of a million stories to tell about karma. But the day I realized karma was a real thing is a day that I will never forget.

When I was in college I had a serious boyfriend. By the end of our relationship, we had been together for almost 5 years. Our relationship, like any other relationship, was filled with a lot of good times and a lot of not so good times. Ultimately, our relationship ended because of a laundry list of things which included; infidelity, lying, and outside babies. It was maybe about three years after my breakup from that boyfriend that I realized that karma was, in fact, a real thing. But in order for me to explain my revelation, I have to back up about 6 years.

In 2007, I turned 21 and my mother turned 50. My birthdays are always full of drama and usually don’t end well for me so this particular year I decided to focus on my mother and throw her a surprise birthday party. The party ended up getting so big that I could not keep the surprise from my mother. I eventually told her a couple of weeks before the party about the plans because I needed her help in pulling it off.

Well the day of the party came and everything was a big hit! It was a success. My mother had a blast, the live band was a hit, and all of the guest asked when we were throwing another party. I was proud of myself.

After all the guest left, my mother, a friend of hers, my boyfriend and myself began to clean up as much as we could while being tired and inebriated. After about twenty minutes, I knew the struggle was beginning to get a little too real for me to continue cleaning up. My boyfriend and I went into the basement to pick up the last of some trash. I was feeling really out of it so I decided to take a break and sit on the stairs.

At the bottom of the staircase in the basement, we had an antique carnival scale that, when you stepped on it, told your fortune. The scale was huge. It stood about 6’6″ and the entire front of it was covered by a mirrored door. Before the party, we taped a piece of rope to the mirrored door to block off part of the basement. While I was sitting on the stairs, taking a break from cleaning up, I suddenly heard a large crash followed by the sound of shattering glass. “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screamed loudly.  I looked up and saw my boyfriend standing by the antique scale, in shock. My mom and her friend came running down the stairs. I was still sitting there trying to process what happened in between laughing and trying to stay awake. My boyfriend had pulled off the piece of tape that had been attached to the scale door to hold the rope that blocked off part of the basement. For some unexplained reason, that slight touch had made the entire front door of the scale fall off. My boyfriend was so embarrassed. On top of being paranoid about breaking an antique, he was more paranoid about breaking the mirror.

Now you know what they say happens when you break a mirror right? You get seven years of bad luck. I never believed that until that night when we were cleaning up after my mother’s party. Fast forward six years later, some random day in 2013. I get an unexpected phone call from my now ex-boyfriend. Even though we had broken up three years prior, and he had done so many messed up things to me and our relationship, I could still hear the affects of that night when he broke the mirror. He told me all about how he lost his precious government job, lost his house, his car, and his child’s mother was making his life a living hell. As I was listening to him I felt the biggest smile and sense of satisfaction come over me. It had been six years since he broke the mirror at my mother’s house. Three years since he had cheated on me and broke my heart. He even sent me a photo. He looked like shit. And all I could do was smile.

See, whether or not you believe in karma, there will always be a reaction for the things that you do. Newton’s Third Law states that, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” When you treat people like shit, eventually it comes back on you in some way. In my ex-boyfriend’s case, he learned about karma first hand. That is why it is so important for you to always try and do the right thing, and treat people with decency. This story about karma always reminds me of a song by one of my favorite rappers Nas. The hook goes like this:

“It’s a small world, you reap what you sow/ What goes around comes around, if you sleep you don’t know/ A very small world, where beef could never end/ At the time you least expect it, I’m gonna see you again/ It’s a small world, you get away with it now/ Soon enough it catches up with you some way some how/ It’s a small world so watch what you do”

“Small World” from the album “I Am…” by Nas