By Chris Suddeth
The eminent parapsychologist and famed ghostbuster, Dr. Peter Venkman, said it best when the soon-to-be ghostbusters got kicked out of their cushy New York University digs.
“Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe we were destined to get thrown out of this dump.”
Before the ghostbusters became the ghostbusters, they had no money and no practical skills, having been in academia for too long. They were cast out into the cold of their collective dark night of the soul in this now classic 1984 film. However you want to term this “call to action,” why do bad things happen to good people and scoundrels win the lottery? Riddle me this: Is karma supposed to spin out everybody that cuts you off and cuts you down on the highway of life?
Don’t have a real answer other than the instant karma pages you might please your thumb with on Instagram, do you?
To a certain extent, I do wish karma worked in this manner. It’d be oh so satisfying, so who wouldn’t?
Sometimes it does in a delicious manner, but it’s best thought of in the grand scheme of our life’s purpose. I usually think of it in terms of past lives working issues out in this life, because it didn’t get worked out in ancient Egypt.
Let’s table that convo and stick to this lifetime for simplicity’s sake.
Were you the “Little Engine That Couldn’t?” And it just didn’t work out despite your greatest efforts and most fervent prayers? And when it didn’t work out, it was crushing, wasn’t it? Perhaps even soul crushing? It’s only soul crushing if you let it be and perhaps you should let it be for a while. After all, you never know if defeat leads you to saving New York City from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Seriously, think back on life’s tapestry and see if things haven’t worked for the highest and best of your life’s purpose. Karma works for your highest and best, not the most comfortable and convenient.
Karma gets in your face to teach you lessons with people, places and things until you get it. How long does that take? Well now, that’s up to you, isn’t it? Your life purpose and the timing of your awakening to it are not determined by mystics like me. We can only shed light into the darkness. Those things are up to the individual at the helm.
How well do you listen, really listen? This is part of meditation. And yes, karma does resort to pain when we become hard of hearing. This deafness happens to the best of us; that’s why “bad” things happen to good people.
We’ve come so far since the inception of the ghostbusters, that now we need only stream the answers of karma and its bonds to others through our smart TV. Just watch and listen. The answers tempt us, taunt us, haunt us and even beat us over the head until we check the life lesson off the list. Thanks for listening. Next time we’ll chat about the Karma Chameleon.
