I’m off to be a good Samaritan to my big brother. In keeping with the cashing of my karmic cheque earlier this week when some kind, honest people turned my swanky camera in to the transit authority, restoring my faith in both Good Karma & Good People, I’m being more generous than I can afford to be, and setting my broke brother up with great food for the next two weeks. In my goodie bag — ham, a roasting chicken, eggs, milk, and tonnes of other good stuff. Weirdly, instead of being stressed about spending the money on him, I’m enjoying the act of being generous and helping him out, so I’m buying nice stuff that can go a long ways.
Being good to others feels good, y’know?
In other karmic news, a woman left her credit card on the counter in front of me and the clerk never noticed it. Nonetheless, I chased her down to return it today. Wow, I’m stocking up on good citizen points all over. Figure I pushed my luck earlier this week, and now I have to restock my karma account.
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Flying Angus said he was surprised I admitted to having made racist comments in the past. I think the surprise is somewhat ludicrous, personally. I think there can’t be a person on this planet who hasn’t made some kind of prejudiced, ignorant, or racist comment at some point, and most of us have done it more than a few times. It doesn’t take much — a crack about Asian drivers, a quip about “fags” or “queers”, a snide comment about a “fat guy”, scoffing at women and their shopping, a cynical comment about “Jewing” a merchant down. They’re all generalisations, and all are borne from ignorance or judgment. We’ve all said the comments, but few of us really realize just how much power that one flippant comment carries.
I own my faults and shortcomings. I’m pretty fucking far from perfect. Hell, “perfect” is nowhere on my radar screen. I’m conscious of crossing the line. There are comments we all make that are racially akin to the power of ‘white lies’ — it’s shit that’s been said so often it barely carries weight anymore. In a perfect world, we’d all get over it and start looking at each other truly as equals. But it ain’t a perfect world and while we might live in the Information Age, there seems to be more stereotyping and ignorance as each day passes. The question is, are you honest with yourself regarding your shortcomings? When you find yourself accountable for every word you say, then you come do your pot-kettle-black routine with me. Until then, my eyes are wide fuckin’ open.