Karma & Consequences

Karma LOVES The Beatles.

We all struggle from time to time, need help and “get by with a little help from [our] friends” (sorry, couldn’t help myself).  That’s a no brainer.  Helping friends does produce good karma but what we really want to know is how to create Crazy Good Karma ~ the kind that sparkles and sounds like fireworks on the 4th of July.   That kind of Crazy Good Karma is found in helping total strangers from which you have nothing, nada, rein (that would be French) to gain.

Even better if the situation involves you sticking your neck out and going the extra mile.  Trust me, giving up a parking space to a stranger while you sit in your toasty car listening to Beyonce is great but that’s not what we’re talking about either.

Here’s a for instance ~ a few weeks ago, I walked into my local drug store to buy some Cadbury Mini Eggs that are only available during Easter which is a good thing because they are my absolute favs and were they available year round I would be as big as a house with fingers too fat to type.

As I approached the counter, two big male clerks were very agitated about something they had just seen in the parking lot through the store window.   From what I understood, the clerks had seen a child in the trunk of a car. I asked them to call the police and they refused believing (probably accurately) that they would get fired for becoming involved in an incident outside the store.

Long story short, I went out to investigate myself and believed, without putting myself in extreme jeopardy, that something menacing was indeed taking place that needed the attention of law enforcement.  So, I called the police.

As some of you may know, calling the police for any reason sets off a operational flow-chart of events from discussions with 911 operators from multiple jurisdictions to police interviews, police reports, waiting, talking and waiting some more.  Reporting a child in the trunk of a car now speeding down the road to a major interstate expressway proved no different.

A quick trip for a quick fix turned into over an hour of high drama but I was willing to stick it out.  Not for someone I knew that could help me in the future but for someone I didn’t know, didn’t plan to know and would never benefit from, at least not in a literal sense, in the here and now.

Law enforcement from three jurisdictions became involved.  After interviewing the parents at their home (got the license plate-YES!), the parents admitted the little boy had been in the trunk of the car but they claim he moved into the passenger compartment before they drove off.  We’ll never know for sure.

What I do know for sure is I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had done nothing.  By calling 911, I allowed the police to check things out.  I allowed them to do their job because it isn’t my job to investigate possible criminal activity, it’s theirs.  The police signed up to help people and they really like doing things other than writing tickets.

Sadly, many, many folks, if not most, could have lived with themselves just fine and do every day when they step over dead homeless men in the street or fail to call 911 when they suspect a child is being abused.

Don’t be one of those people.  Take the hit and help a stranger.  Help by calling 911 when someone needs help. Let creating Crazy Good Karma be your fix.

**This year marks the 45th anniversary of the release of “Help” written by John Lennon with some collaboration with Paul McCartney.   Although the song was written for the Beatles film “Help,” John later reflected in an interview to Playboy magazine that the lyrics were deeply person because at the time he was struggling with their fame and “crying out for help.”