On Karma…

Do you believe in Karma?

Why?

Why not?

Once upon a time, I’m sure I believed in Karma. Even now I have not completely expunged my mind of all traces of a belief in karma, but I am becoming more and more aware of how much of a myth the whole concept is.

Karma posits that those who do bad things will be rewarded with bad things sometime in the future, and less common is that those who do good will be rewarded with good.

Even as I write this, I am thinking of how ridiculous my question is. Of course Karma does not exist in the sense that there is no magic force that is going to hunt you down and make you pay for past misdeeds or give you a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie and cream ice cream for being a good person. But still, do you believe that bad is rewarded with bad?

I think it is convenient to think believe in Karma. When people hurt us, we want to believe that they will pay for it somehow. Some people act all gracious about being hurt, leaving everything to God and earning praise for their classiness. The truth is behind that facade is a longing for Karma to hit the one who hurt them like a truck.

Bad people do bad things and go on to leave happy fruitful lives. Your spouse will cheat on you and go on to win the lottery, get clear skin, live to be a hundred with the one they cheated on you with, while you sit in bondage waiting for Karma to act.

Also funny to me is that we always think of Karma as something that happens to other people. When bad things happen to us, we never think maybe it’s Karma for something we did. Nope.

I believe that in life, good things happen and bad things happen. Your actions take you down the path of more good things or more bad things, but I do not necessarily believe in Karma.

My point is when bad things are done to us, it is important to address it, and try to heal. Waiting around for Karma to strike is only going to hurt you more. In the same vein, be good because you want to , not because you believe the earth will reward you for it, especially if your idea of being good is staying home on a Friday night to do chores. Don’t start looking at those who live “irresponsible lives”, wondering why they seem to have it all while you struggle in all of your goodness. The world owes you nothing.

One final thought: why do some people name their daughters Karma? Is she what they got for not using a rubber?

The Snapback Epidemic and other tales

My last post was ages ago. I haven’t posted anything at all in April, which is a shame because April is the most beautiful month of them all.

What do I have on my mind?

The C word: C U Next Tuesday. I am fascinated by words; the way random letters are put together and infused with meanings. The way we make certain words “bad words” and some words must not even be said at all. The C word is deemed the most offensive word in the English. The first time I ever came across the word, it was described as the worst thing you could call a woman. I have never called anyone the C word, and I even cringed when Nicki Minaj referred to herself by that word in one of her raps.  Recently I have been wondering how this word came to be more offensive. The word means female genitals, so how did it attain its Voldemort it-which-must-not-be-said status?  How is it worse that a woman being called a female dog? It is just strange to me how a bunch of letters are put together to form words, and how we make some offensive; even stranger is how we allow completely innocuous words to develop a negative identity to the point where they cannot be uttered anymore and their original meanings are discarded.

The Snapback Epidemic: Growing up, women who had given birth were not expected to be svelte sexy hotcakes. I got older and realised women could infact remain svelte after having children but still didn’t put a timeframe on losing weight. Fast forward to 2016, and we are in the age of the snapback, of the yummy mummy of the hashtag 2 days postpartum. Now women push a living being out of their vaginas and before the placenta is out hop in front of a mirror to take a picture to share with the internet. The internet responds with glee: “omigosh goalsssss!”  The term frame for this big reveal has exponentially gotten smaller as time has gone on; from one year PP to 6 months to 3 months to one week to 2 days to watch my body literally snapback in slow motion as I push my baby out. It must be wonderful to “get your body back” after such an arduous process.I understand it is difficult to adjust to your new body. The pressure must be intense , and I just hope that women don’t feel that they have to snapback within a few days, Some women will be fortunate enough to be rocking a six pack 2 days postpartum, some will not. Just enjoy your new baby and focus on healing.

Oh by the way, can we stop turning everything into goals? Relationship goals, baby goals. Pregnancy goals. Labour goals. Hair goals. Skin goals. face goals. armpit goals. Fart goals. Just stop it.