It is strange that I should have thought of this today. This was not a very special day except for one thing that was really nice. A long time friend and I spent about 30 minutes on the telephone and we never once talked about "the old days." We talked about "now." At my age, that doesn't happen too often. It happened today. After not communicating for a long while, we got back into the "present" of our lives. I like that. I so often find myself getting mired into conversations that remind me of Antoine de St. Exupery's book, "La Citadel." [The Citadel] At a very early stage of his book he talks about the deprived people, the marginalized. He says that they have nothing to talk about but the misery that they experience. So that's what they do. They even devise ways to make themselves feel better, if not happy. They do it by comparing their misery. They take pride in have more pululating sores than anyone sharing the same alley; their deformities become badges of honor, provided of course that they are more serious than anyone else's.
This morning's conversation was more catching up than comparing. Stuff like, "Yeah I don't have $500.00 to play with anymore. The closest I get to the grooming barn is in the "Racing Weekly." Ouch! "Does that mean that we won't go to the track in July?"
"Oh, no, we can go. We'll play the $2.00 daily double and go across the street for a drink and come home." Oh, wow! How fun!
So, what one day went around, has now come back around. It's sweet.
That's Karma. But then, being the Classics nerd that I am, and Catholic, I immediately compared the "Go around..." with the "Panta Rhei." Now that's something that you don't hear quite so much about. It means that "Everything passes." Hmmm. Does that mean that it never comes back? That's what it means. Nothing returns. Nothing comes back. Even you. You leave. The "you" who leaves today will never come back, not even tomorrow. By then the "you" that you were today will have changed into the new "you" who persevered until tomorrow. Phew...Maybe Karma is better. I was wondering and then I thought about a conversation that I had while I was in Divinity School, in Rome, Italy, if you please. A Trappist monk who was in my class in university said, "If you're going through Hell, by all means keep going."
Ah, those French people. Aren't they just so philosophical? But, compare that with Karma. Which do you prefer? Does it matter? Do they meet somewhere? What happens when Karma meets Greece? Does Karma bend Greece or does Greece straighten out Karma?
OK. Enough of that stuff. But you get some insight as to how weird I can be in my time travel through an otherwise ordinary day. I hope that this will not keep you awake tonight. The nice part about this kind of stuff though is, everyone knows that it sure as shootin' hasn't been plagiarized.
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