Karma and Compound Interest, Part II

By Robert Ringer

In Part I of this article, I offered some examples of people who seem to have paid for their bad deeds with "compound interest" added. The belief that everything that goes around comes around is a comforting view of the world, but two other possible scenarios destroy the idea that the world operates in such a manner on a consistent basis. They are:

1. When bad things happen to good people, and ...



2. When good things happen to bad people.

In thousands of years of recorded history, no one has even come close to being able to explain why bad things sometimes happen to good people. It could be that God has a plan to which we are not privy. Or that appropriate rewards will be forthcoming in the afterlife. Or perhaps that God doesn't care about earthly events. Who knows?

As for good things happening to bad people, it's a scenario that is every bit as frustrating to most of us. We all know bona fide scoundrels and full-blooded vermin who appear to live charmed lives, with their debts never seeming to come due.

So, where does that leave Jack Tatum, Mike Nifong, Johnny Cochran, and untold numbers of other immoral rascals? Were they just unlucky folks who got caught in the gears of a random universe, while even worse characters, through nothing more than the luck of the draw, got off scot free?

I don't think so. While I haven't been appointed to speak on behalf of the Final Judge, my gut tells me that the Tatums, Nifongs, and Cochrans of the world do, in fact, fall into the "everything that goes around comes around" category.

But humility and honesty compel me to admit that I have no explanation for why good people sometimes get punished and bad people often get away with murder (in some cases, literally). That being the case, I choose not to fret about when, where, and how punishments will be meted out, with or without compound interest, to those who make careers out of lying, stealing, cheating, and hypocrisy — not to mention those who excel at extracurricular activities such as murder, rape, and pillage.

My mantra is this: Don't try to direct traffic unless God has personally appointed you to that role. Just be patient and watch in awe as events unfold through the years. Even more important, live your own life on the premise that everything that goes around does, indeed, come around.

And understand going in that no matter how righteous you may be, you still may get struck down by a brain tumor or diabetes. Even so, what do you have to lose by striving to be kind, compassionate, honest, and civil?

It's true, of course, that even if you invest an extraordinary amount of effort into living your life on the high road, you will fall far short of moral perfection. Which begs the question: Is it worth it? I believe it is, because striving for moral perfection, of and by itself, is a great reward.

When all is said and done, no one can say with certainty whether or not an abstract phenomenon such as karma is at work in our universe. But why tempt fate and run the risk of finding out the hard way that it is?

That said, I pledge to you that the moment I come up with answers to why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people, you'll be the first to know. However, in all candor, I must admit that I do not expect the Conscious Universal Power Source to share the answers to those questions with me anytime soon.

In the meantime, my best advice is to live your life as though you believe that karma is a reality. Or, to put it in more secular, pragmatic terms, to live every moment as though the whole world were watching.

Previous - Karma and Compound Interest, Part I

If you have thoughts to share regarding this article:

Go to top of "Karma and Compound Interest, Part II"