Karma and such

I like the idea of Karma. Do good things and you'll reap the consequences in your next life, maybe even in this life. My only issue is it can make your intentions a bit disingenuous. A kind act toward someone can really be the result of selfish motivation. But, that's only a small flaw relative to the gain of people doing good for others.

I read another theory several months ago. Basically, according to this theory, all you have to do is believe you deserve something and you'll get it. It was more about attitude and positive thinking. I like positive thinking as well. I believe it can work wonders. But, this particular idea intrigues me.

It all links to Mark.

I'll ask you--how often does a '59 Cadillac come up in conversation around your home? How often do you see one? For us, it comes up a bit more frequently than it might in the average home. Mark dreams of getting one and fixing it up. This makes me laugh as we currently pay someone else to WASH our cars. Anyway, the subject might come up once or twice a year--not a lot.

Several months ago we were checking out a new dog park. We went home a different way and well, drove past a house with a '59 Cadillac sitting in the driveway. Many weeks later we went to the dog park again. Mark, having his dream revived from the last sighting, decided to drive by the house again to see the car, only it wasn't there this time. I mocked him, of course. After I was done mocking him, I decided to work on squelching his dream--explaining how he hates doing stuff with his hands. In fact, nearly every time time he's forced to do such work, he ends up calling the object a whore. Wouldn't he be happier with the unrealized joy he envisions?

No sooner than I finish the gist of my rant, a different '59 Cadillac drives by us on the freeway as if to say, "SHUT UP KELLY, you whore."

Moving right along. We have been contemplating a budget for months and months now. It's gotten a little more serious as of late. Mainly because of mint.com. It's an awesome website that reports particularly unawesome spending habits. It has revealed that we spend a lot of money at coffee shops. (I don't like coffee--read between the lines). So, I was discussing with Mark, how we needed to.. say, not go to Peets/Starbucks three, I repeat, 3 times a day.

Mark did not have a response.

Last week, the day after we discussed a possible coffee budget, he called to say he received some letter of recognition from the client, which included a gift card to Starbucks. Of course it did. He called back later that day to say the card ended up being empty so he had to pay for his fix. That lets him off the hook for that particular purchase. The client gave him a new card so he could start all over again at his next visit (in two hours).

Earlier this week Mark called to recount a story. He ordered his decaf coffee at Peets. They were out so they started brewing some more. Several minutes passed and Mark started to wonder about his coffee. He approached the cashier who shamefully realized that he had forgotten about Mark and his decaf coffee. To relieve his guilt, he gave Mark a voucher for a free coffee. Again, of course he did.

Later in the day I received another call. Mark proceeded to tell me about how he went to Peets to redeem his free coffee voucher. The same guilt-ridden cashier was there. He refused to accept the voucher. Instead, he gave Mark a free coffee, leaving the voucher for a future visit. Yep, of course!!!!

It's not as though Mark goes around giving people coffee or anything, so it can't be Karma. It's more like he has conjured up this lot of "in your face, Kelly" spirits who run around creating "this cannot be a coincidence" events that serve only to prove to me that Mark gets what Mark wants.