Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Samsara, Interrupted

The other day I was hanging out in front of PerpetualStartup with a couple of schmucks from work, and a homeless guy wanders by, asking for change. Now I'm as conservative and intolerant as the next guy. I largely see the homeless as a longish-term solution to the problem of dwindling food supply, à la Soylent Green, but I gave this guy a couple bucks. "For food", he said. Whatever. My compatriots mumbled their excuses, and Homeless Guy #1 wandered off.

"Why'd you do that?" asked Knuckles, unimpressed. I explained the concept of Karma, that I mostly donate to the occasional mendicant bard in order to continue being a dick to co-workers like him, and that next time I'd have to consider giving a twenty.

We turned our attention to other things, and after about two minutes another homeless guy wandered by with a Tim Horton's cup, asking for change. This time I (legitimately, I thought) explained that no, I didn't have any change, sorry.

Lipstick (helpfully), to Homeless Guy #2: "He gave all his change to the other guy that was just here!"

I guess with karma, as with all things, "Easy Come, Easy Go".

This is probably a lesson that Homeless Guys One and Two have already learned.

Years from now, when you trip over my unemployed, drunken, prostrate form in some dark corner on the street near where you work, and I hit you up for some change, remember karma.

3 uninformed opinions:

Leila said...

hi phil, sam here. leila got fed up with me using her account for asking silly and unanswered questions. so i was just reading your latest entry and at the end of it i still didnt quite get the point of what you were saying. i understood it, but im not sure if either there is no point or im just blind.

Cool Ranch Luke said...

Hi Sam! There are two possibilities here: 1) I'm talking to hear the sound of my own voice, or writing to see the... sight of... something. It probably sounded better in my head

OR 2) I am the Descartes of our times, my genius neither appreciated nor understood. Then should you take solace in the fact that you are not alone on this tossing ocean of uncomprehension.

Either way, the moral of the story is: if you want a lucid explanation, don't wait three weeks to ask, because I've totally forgotten whatever the point of this article was. Sorry :-(

And hey, wait. If Leila doesn't want you using her account, then why are you?

Leila said...

well. ok, i actually get what you are saying. but the difference between you and Descartes is that he was french, a harder language to understand in the first place.
and i write 3 weeks late because i only go on the computer every 3 weeks. and the reason im still on leilas thingy is because when i wrote the comment, i was on a different account but it didnt work so i switched to leilas because hers obviously works. its hard to explain but i think thats it.