When good things happen to bad people.

One of the great tests in our lives is surely how we respond when something good happens to someone bad. Also the opposite, when bad things happen to good people, but I'm on the first one today so stay with me.

You know how it goes...someone totally underserving gets an unexpected windfall. This just happened with a blogger I know. Or your favorite chicken passes away at a young age while your least favorite, most difficult bird goes on forever.  This has happened to me, too. Or someone you hate ends up as POTUS. There's a 100 percent likelihood of that happening to me this fall unless a write-in candidate somehow wins the election.

But I've lived long enough that it's all happened before and will again.  

Even in the garden, the tree you lovingly tend to somehow always ends up being the one that catches a virus or blows down in a windstorm and dies, and a different tree, one you don't particularly like and always contemplate taking out, grows like a proverbial weed until it towers over you, almost mocking your disinterest in it.

Maybe it's a test on our path to see how we deal with these things. When I go through life thinking about the lessons I need to learn, the ones that keep repeating themselves come to the forefront of my consciousness. This is one of them. How do I deal with the disappointment and anger when the bad are rewarded for being bad?

I don't live in a world where I get to be the judge and jury in most situations that happen around me. Sometimes I wish I could, but mostly I'm glad I'm not because I never know the complete story. And that is where faith comes in. Whether it's faith in Jesus, God or just the Karmic Universe, sometimes we have to go on faith and know that although it's out of our hands, it's in someone/something else's.

I am writing this today to remind myself about that kind of faith. And if it reminds you too, then that is a good thing.

We are not judge or jury. We're the guy sitting in the back of the courtroom with his iPad and a snack, watching it all unfold, trying to learn to trust in a system -- the universe -- which we don't always understand.

That's all faith is, but it's enough to keep most of us struggling to climb towards acceptance, most of our lives.

Karma

I think I have learned the definition of karma: In life, some people have the experience and some people are the experience. And the rest of us, at various times in our lives, are both. One blogger I know but do not follow much makes her living by falling behind on the mortgage and reporting, in sad and slightly panicked tones on her blog, the imminent potential loss of her farm -- the heart and soul of her life (although you'd think that if it was her real heart and soul she'd spend less time tweeting about television shows and more time working to ensure she has a roof over her head). 

The thing is, people donate to bail her ass out of trouble; they always have, I have seen her run this scenario many times since she first bought her farm.

And there's a couple of ways to look at it. You can get angry at the irresponsibility, the half-truths, the outright scams and the veiled threats. Or you can view it from more of a universal perspective, which is that she is providing an experience for people, karmically speaking. 

Some are learning that it feels good to help others, no matter who those people may be. Others are learning that you can't always believe what you read. Others are learning that you can give to people who you ultimately come to believe do not deserve it, tuck that little life lesson into your pocket and move on. But no matter what, everyone is learning from how she lives her life.

Look at Mother Theresa, for a more positive example. She went around saving people and therefore was a kind of direct experience with Good for many of them. But she also served as a worldwide example of generosity and selflessness. And so she caused people to have experiences with those values she so aspired to live -- spirituality, charity, and love.

I guess karma truly comes in the form of what people learn from you. Do they learn generosity, suspicion, disappointment, or hope?