What Goes Around…

One of my Facebook friends has been sharing some hairy details of a family feud.  It’s not pretty.  The stories she tells are awful: stalking, theft of property promised on a parent’s death bed, and far too many cruel words.   Most of this seems to emanate from one member of the family, to the pain of everyone else.  Underlying the gory details is frustration that this one awful person is “getting away with it,” that others still think of them as the epitome of a good Christian when privately, they act more like Rosemary’s Baby.

We’ve all known someone who can be the most terrible, sneaky human ever– and somehow, they manage to escape judgement.   In public life, we’ve seen those who continue to succeed, despite heinous behavior (former Vice President Dick Cheney — who helped lie us into Iraq and outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is my personal bete noir).  It makes you want to throw one righteous temper tantrum.

Yes, it would be enormously gratifying to see those people embarrassed, brought down and otherwise smacked in the face with rotten tomatoes.  That would satisfy our egos.  But just because a public shaming doesn’t occur, doesn’t mean they “get away with it.”

You know how they say that your life flashes before you when you die?  It’s my belief that, at that moment, we experience a sense of both our good moments, and bad.  If you accept that you had those dark moments, if you own it — then you pass into enlightenment.  The owning of those moments can be tough; I think you get a true measure of the pain you have caused with every thoughtless, selfish gesture.  It’s a fleeting moment, but being willing to suffer through it is the price we pay for enlightenment and entrance into the Light.  This is how our soul grows.

There are those, however, who cannot bear to look at what they have done (and in some cases, with good reason.  Would YOU want to trade places with Hitler?  Didn’t think so).  They turn away — literally — from the Light.  The dark place where their soul stays stuck is a kind of punishment you can’t imagine.  I supposed you could call it Hell –although minus any demons and pitchforks.  It’s the absence of Light that’s the true torture.

I once went through a guided meditation that was meant to give us a taste of what this “low level” was like.  I have to tell you, I felt sick to my stomach — and racked with sorrow for what people endure in that place.  And that was about 1/100,000,000th of what they experience.

The point is, is that no one gets away with anything. The best we can do when presented with these frustrating people is to stay in our own lane and remember that they will be held accountable at some point.

In plainer terms, “What goes around, comes around”….”Every dog has its day”…and my favorite, “Karma’s a big bitch with PMS.”   Stay peaceful.