the hideous handbag
Elle is 34, has one child, and works in a poorly paid dead-end job. Like all marriages, Elle's has its share of ups and downs but she is not as quick as other people are to attribute the downs to karma or just desserts.
"I believe that every action has a reaction," says Elle, "but I don't believe that the reaction is necessarily going to be good or bad in accordance with the action that prompted it."
"Good acts don't necessarily prompt good reactions any more than bad acts prompt bad reactions."
"For instance, the other day my husband brought me home a handbag that he had purchased from some guy selling bags that had fallen off the back of a truck," laughs Elle. "The handbag was hideous - I don't even need a nice one let alone a hideous one - and although my husband thought he was doing something wonderful for me I scolded him for wasting money."
"In the karma school of thought my ingratitude would prompt just desserts in the form of my husband never buying anything for me again - or even leaving me for a more grateful woman," explains Elle, "but I don't take this sort of garbage on board."
"As far as I'm concerned the whole notion of karmic punishment for bad deeds is a social stricture from the manipulative ruling elite to keep us in line and prevent us from doing what they do."
"You only have to look at the way the rich and powerful became that way to understand that corruption, depravity and crime pay handsome rewards."
"There are definitely more crooks out of prison than in it," laughs Elle, "and it wasn't karma for bad deeds that put the crooks behind bars - it was their own stupidity for getting caught. The smart crooks never get caught."
"I've heard people take the karma idea to ridiculous lengths," says Elle. "They claim that sickly or abused children chose their parents to atone for the bad deeds they performed in a previous life - that people subjected to ethnic cleansing chose to be humiliated or exterminated to repay karmic debts - and that individuals who suffer indescribable physical or emotional agonies similarly chose their fates."
"How can anyone believe such crap?"
"There was a book published a while ago entitled 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People' - or something like that," says Elle. "While I appreciate that it probably aimed at dispelling the karmic myth it nevertheless perpetuated it by assuming that good things should happen to good people!"
"Good people no more deserve good things than parades deserve sunny weather."
"I think that the new psychobabble - that we should take responsibility for whatever happens to us - is nothing more than karma dressed up as something else," laughs Elle.
"I'm happy to take responsibility for something good or bad that I have directly caused to happen to me," says Elle, "but the notion that I am responsible for good or bad things coming to me directly from other people is something I can't accept."
"Taking responsibility for everything that happens to us is the most manipulative ploy I have ever come across!"
"My little girl's teacher is into all this 'responsibility' psychobabble and I got really upset when she told me that her teacher had prevented her from going on a school excursion because she didn't do her homework."
"Another teacher might have scolded her for not doing her homework - or said nothing - but this teacher took it upon herself to play God and claim that her vindictive action in withholding excursion rights was a reaction that my little girl was responsible for - i.e. it was her just desserts."
"Taken to extremes," says Elle, "this 'responsibility' psychobabble can be used to perpetrate hideous crimes on people and then blame them for it."
"Were all those souls who lost their lives on 9/11 responsible for what happened to them?"
"Did they get their just desserts?"
"Were they all experiencing a karmic reaction to something bad they did?"
"As strange as it may seem but there are plenty of people out there who truly do believe that those poor souls are responsible for what happened to them in much the same way as my daughter was responsible for her excursion rights being withheld."
"Those who make an exception to the responsibility rule for the 9/11 victims are showing just how manipulative the rule is."
"If my husband does indeed never buy me anything again - or if he leaves me for a more grateful woman," laughs Elle, "then you won't catch me beating up on myself for not accepting gracefully his gift of a hideous handbag."
"I am no more responsible for his behavior than he is for mine."
Elle's story first appeared as elle: karma and just desserts
"I believe that every action has a reaction," says Elle, "but I don't believe that the reaction is necessarily going to be good or bad in accordance with the action that prompted it."
"Good acts don't necessarily prompt good reactions any more than bad acts prompt bad reactions."
"For instance, the other day my husband brought me home a handbag that he had purchased from some guy selling bags that had fallen off the back of a truck," laughs Elle. "The handbag was hideous - I don't even need a nice one let alone a hideous one - and although my husband thought he was doing something wonderful for me I scolded him for wasting money."
"In the karma school of thought my ingratitude would prompt just desserts in the form of my husband never buying anything for me again - or even leaving me for a more grateful woman," explains Elle, "but I don't take this sort of garbage on board."
"As far as I'm concerned the whole notion of karmic punishment for bad deeds is a social stricture from the manipulative ruling elite to keep us in line and prevent us from doing what they do."
"You only have to look at the way the rich and powerful became that way to understand that corruption, depravity and crime pay handsome rewards."
"There are definitely more crooks out of prison than in it," laughs Elle, "and it wasn't karma for bad deeds that put the crooks behind bars - it was their own stupidity for getting caught. The smart crooks never get caught."
"I've heard people take the karma idea to ridiculous lengths," says Elle. "They claim that sickly or abused children chose their parents to atone for the bad deeds they performed in a previous life - that people subjected to ethnic cleansing chose to be humiliated or exterminated to repay karmic debts - and that individuals who suffer indescribable physical or emotional agonies similarly chose their fates."
"How can anyone believe such crap?"
"There was a book published a while ago entitled 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People' - or something like that," says Elle. "While I appreciate that it probably aimed at dispelling the karmic myth it nevertheless perpetuated it by assuming that good things should happen to good people!"
"Good people no more deserve good things than parades deserve sunny weather."
"I think that the new psychobabble - that we should take responsibility for whatever happens to us - is nothing more than karma dressed up as something else," laughs Elle.
"I'm happy to take responsibility for something good or bad that I have directly caused to happen to me," says Elle, "but the notion that I am responsible for good or bad things coming to me directly from other people is something I can't accept."
"Taking responsibility for everything that happens to us is the most manipulative ploy I have ever come across!"
"My little girl's teacher is into all this 'responsibility' psychobabble and I got really upset when she told me that her teacher had prevented her from going on a school excursion because she didn't do her homework."
"Another teacher might have scolded her for not doing her homework - or said nothing - but this teacher took it upon herself to play God and claim that her vindictive action in withholding excursion rights was a reaction that my little girl was responsible for - i.e. it was her just desserts."
"Taken to extremes," says Elle, "this 'responsibility' psychobabble can be used to perpetrate hideous crimes on people and then blame them for it."
"Were all those souls who lost their lives on 9/11 responsible for what happened to them?"
"Did they get their just desserts?"
"Were they all experiencing a karmic reaction to something bad they did?"
"As strange as it may seem but there are plenty of people out there who truly do believe that those poor souls are responsible for what happened to them in much the same way as my daughter was responsible for her excursion rights being withheld."
"Those who make an exception to the responsibility rule for the 9/11 victims are showing just how manipulative the rule is."
"If my husband does indeed never buy me anything again - or if he leaves me for a more grateful woman," laughs Elle, "then you won't catch me beating up on myself for not accepting gracefully his gift of a hideous handbag."
"I am no more responsible for his behavior than he is for mine."
Elle's story first appeared as elle: karma and just desserts
Labels: husbands, just desserts, karma, magical beliefs, marriage
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