Chapter 17
Lessons in Karma
I took Josh and Jessie to a benefit dinner and auction for a friend named Jim. He had racked up many thousands of dollars in bills for his second round of chemotherapy in spite of having medical insurance. He had lost his wife to cancer just the year before. She had been there to face his first fight with this life-consuming disease but he was fighting the current battle alone. He had lost his home because he could no longer make his house payment with only one income. He had also lost his job of more than 18 years when the factory in which he had been employed shut down due to the crawling economy.
The benefit dinner was a blast. They served spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread. For dessert we were treated to the most incredible cookies I’d had since my great grandmother made her spiced raisin cookies. Thus began a night to remember.
The auction proceeded and I watched as people bid generously on restored toy antique fire engines which ironically I recognized from my childhood (you know you’re getting old when), overnight vacation packages, food and wine baskets, MSU football paraphernalia, and signed jerseys from the Detroit Lions.
I noticed Jim’s sisters bidding on item after item, both raising the bids and purchasing many odd gifts they would take home. I sat next to Jim’s youngest sister, Casey, who felt the need to justify each purchase with an explanation regarding what she intended to do with the item.
“Do I hear $100.00 for this beautifully restored antique pedal fire engine?” the auctioneer asked.
“I’ll bid $150.00,” Casey shouted. As interest waned from other bidders she shouted out her final bid of $400 and squealed with excitement as hers was proclaimed the final winning bid.
“I’m so excited,” she explained to me. “I bought that for my grandson or granddaughter.”
“How will you decide which one gets it?” I asked.
“Whichever one is born first,” she said. “I don’t actually have any grandchildren yet.”
Casey and her sisters went on to buy dozens more items.
Another woman paid $300.00 for a month of meals which had been donated by a kitchen in which you could purchase and prepare meals with a group of friends and neighbors. I heard later that she had donated that month of meals to a local food pantry. The local food pantry had then sold raffle tickets for that prize and earned over $900 with which they stocked their shelves.
A teacher had purchased a number of art supplies, children’s books, and educational games and then donated them to her classroom.
My favorite part of the benefit dinner, though, occurred as I watched a gentleman dressed in overalls, whom I guessed to be in his late 80s, bid exorbitantly on a Valentine’s lover’s package. He then gave it to his wheelchair-bound wife who planted a generous kiss on his lips. I want exactly that, I thought. Although this lovely woman’s body had weakened, their love for each other held all the strength of the universe.
I bought an overnight stay at a local hotel which the kids and I planned to use when the Michigan winter weather led us to seek happiness at the side of an indoor pool. We would order pizza and stay up until all hours of the night watching zombie movies as was our mid-winter respite tradition. I also bought a wine bottle opener which I initially did not really want. However no one else was bidding on it and so I took it home. Upon really taking a look at it, the lovely wooden, velvet lined case held a gadget that was the coolest thing I had ever seen or used. It was designed with cogs and a handle that made opening wine a most elegant experience. I knew with the first use that I would need to call the ladies over for a wine party to showcase it.
By the end of the evening I had spent a couple of hundred dollars, and on the way home Jessie wondered about this expenditure.
“Mom, I’m trying to understand this,” she said. “When I asked yesterday if we could go shopping for new jeans you said that we couldn’t afford it.”
“Yes,” I said.
“And yet you spent a lot of money tonight at the dinner.”
“Jessie, you have enough jeans to get you through until we buy your summer clothes, and so it’s not a necessity. The money that we donated tonight will help Jim get back on his feet after the facing the hardest time of his life. I honestly believe that any time we help someone out, in whatever way we can, that will come back to us. God has blessed me in ways financially that allow me to give generously to those in need. If I didn’t have the money then I’m sure God would pave the way for me to donate my time. It’s how the universe has always worked for me. I believe that if other people would do this, it would work that way for everyone. It always just seems to come back to me in such great ways.”
“Interesting,” she said.
“Like karma,” Josh said.
“Yes, like karma,” I agreed.
The auction lasted longer than I expected. It was getting late and as I drove into town the one and only light that I would encounter turned red as I entered the intersection. I went through anyway as there were no other vehicles in any direction, I was exhausted, and I just wanted to get home to Herman, my body-sized pillow, and go to sleep.
Unfortunately I saw red and blue lights in my rear view mirror after passing through the intersection.
“You know you ran that red light, right?” Jessie asked.
“It was pink,” I said.
“Really? Because I don’t remember learning about the pink light in driver’s ed,” she said.
“It’s in the last chapter of the driver’s manual. You must have missed that one.”
“I read the whole manual,” offered Josh, “and there was nothing about pink lights.”
I rolled down my window to speak with the police officer.
“Where are you coming from?” she asked.
“Lansing,” I answered.
“And what were you doing there?” the officer asked.
“We attended a benefit dinner and auction,” I said.
“Do you know why I stopped you?”
“No,” I lied.
“You ran the red light.”
“I thought it was pink.”
“You must not be from around here,” she said. “We don’t have pink lights in Michigan. May I see your license, registration, and insurance papers, please?”
I handed her the documents. As the officer took my papers back to her cruiser to call in my information I decided to use this as a teaching opportunity for Josh and Jessie.
“Well,” I said. “This could be a very expensive mistake I’ve just made. The ticket could run a couple of hundred dollars, I’ll get points on my driving record, and my car insurance could go up. You can, and indeed should, definitely learn from this so you don’t have to face the same consequences.”
The police officer returned to my car and handed the paper work to me.
“I see that you have no other problems on your driving record,” she said. “I’m going to give you a warning this time. Please pay more attention in the future.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I really appreciate this.”
I rolled up the window and seized the next opportunity to enlighten Josh and Jessie.
“Do you remember the money we spent at the benefit dinner tonight?” I asked. “And how I explained that these things always come back to you in awesome ways?”
“Yes,” Jessie said.
“This is just one example of how it truly works. The couple of hundred dollars I spent at the benefit tonight was just repaid. Lead your life this way and you’ll get to experience this gift too.”
“I must admit, that’s pretty cool,” Josh said.
“I agree,” I said.
“I can’t believe you told the cop the light was pink,” Jessie said.
“Her manual must have been missing that chapter,” I said.
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