Vent April 2006

VENT April 2006
By Chris Carney
(Writing as John Coctosnossin)

Recently I’ve fallen victim to aspersion, falsity and misrepresentation. I’ve been on the steel toed boot end of the great cheat, been bamboozled by the greenback trickster and the made the mark of the banknote flimflam.

All this could enrage me, cause my eyes to bulge in crimson fury or force me to enact long dormant plans for redress. Yet, sadly I find myself in restraint mode, and all due to a little thing called karma.

Now I’m not Buddhist, or Hindu or a devotee of Jainism or even a Sikh, but I do have a vague belief in karma. Similar to my belief that aliens once visited our wondrous blue world, that the pyramids are older than the “authorities” claim and that our moon is really hollow, my belief in karma is based on the idea that it is cool and I’d like it to be true. Add in a little bit of healthy fear of the unknown, as in I won’t throw my hands up in anger at any god, cuz they just might smite me, and we got a whole load of superstitious restraint going on.

That being said I’d rather believe in the “My Name is Earl” version of karma, where I make a list, make up for my past sins and happy day, things are all better. I wonder if my recent karmic oppressors are of the same bent.

I doubt it, and as much as I wish in the evil part of my being that they fall victim to a much deserved redress, I take solace in the notion that I am trying, both to remain positive and hope for a reversal of their current actions.

But, I’ve learned that we live in a western culture, where many people don’t believe in karma. All I can hope is that they learn how to be good people, despite their lack of karmic insight.

As such I am a home schooled devotee of karma. I may not get what it is truly about, but I am an expert on what I want it to be.

Published in I.O. Magazine April 2006