April 27, 2004 - Karmic Vengeance

A central plot in many kung fu and action movies is the revenge plot. Uma Thurman's character, the bride, spends both movies getting even for a massacre at her wedding rehearsal.

Watching a movie like this is very cathartic for anyone who's ever wished for divine justice.

I don't believe in getting revenge. Instead, I believe the universe, through the engines of karma, will do that for me. Some people in my past have plenty of reason to worry about what the universe will wreak one day.

For example, for Leechboy to answer karmically, if his tremendous ego gets in the way of it happening this time around, he'll come back as an emotionally abused girlfriend.

The Luser, karmically, stands to have a number of his personal items pilfered, then to have a deadbeat living off him for half a year. I would say that he also, karmically, deserves to have someone cheat on him, except that in a way, he was only acting as my karmic engine.

Ashamed as I am of the fact that I'm capable of something like this, I did cheat on Leechboy. I feel bad about not because he didn't deserve it but because I really should have just left him. By trying to have things both ways, I fell into a web of lies that ultimately hurt three people.

But I figure getting cheated on, in turn, was probably my karmic justice. Sure does feel terrible on the other side of it.

I've heard it said many times that the best revenge is a life lived well. And I would say that's proved to be the case with the bullies who picked on me in junior high. When I visit town and glimpse one of them, they are 50 pounds heavier, working dead end jobs. I think karma has done quite well.

The tricky thing about karma is you have to allow it to do its thing. If I were aware of someone responsible for a crime, for example, I don't see a karmic problem with turning them in. But it would be a mistake to try to enact my own revenge, simply because in the process, I build up more bad juju against myself.

If you, for example, go to someone's house and kick their butt as retribution for a previous butt-kicking, you're only guaranteeing yourself another butt-kicking down the line. Best to let the universe handle it. Perhaps, then, if justice really demands a butt-kicking, some universal force will send along an Uma Thurman in a yellow track suit, samurai sword in hand, divine goddess of butt-kicking karma.

Musings an Online Journal of Sorts By Alyce Wilson
April 27, 2004 - Karmic Vengeance
	This weekend The Gryphon and I rented Kill Bill Vol. 1 and then the same day went to the theater and saw Kill Bill Vol. 2. Now, as most Quentin Tarantino fans know already, he loves genre cinema, especially kung fu movies, spaghetti westerns and action films. So he put a little bit of everything into this movie. It was really a tribute to all those movies he loves. But of course, he was working with a big budget and state of the art Hollywood techniques, so his loving tribute is masterfully done.
A central plot in many kung fu and action movies is the revenge plot. Uma Thurman's character, the bride, spends both movies getting even for a massacre at her wedding rehearsal. Watching a movie like this is very cathartic for anyone who's ever wished for divine justice. I don't believe in getting revenge. Instead, I believe the universe, through the engines of karma, will do that for me. Some people in my past have plenty of reason to worry about what the universe will wreak one day. For example, for Leechboy to answer karmically, if his tremendous ego gets in the way of it happening this time around, he'll come back as an emotionally abused girlfriend. The Luser, karmically, stands to have a number of his personal items pilfered, then to have a deadbeat living off him for half a year. I would say that he also, karmically, deserves to have someone cheat on him, except that in a way, he was only acting as my karmic engine. Ashamed as I am of the fact that I'm capable of something like this, I did cheat on Leechboy. I feel bad about not because he didn't deserve it but because I really should have just left him. By trying to have things both ways, I fell into a web of lies that ultimately hurt three people. But I figure getting cheated on, in turn, was probably my karmic justice. Sure does feel terrible on the other side of it. I've heard it said many times that the best revenge is a life lived well. And I would say that's proved to be the case with the bullies who picked on me in junior high. When I visit town and glimpse one of them, they are 50 pounds heavier, working dead end jobs. I think karma has done quite well. The tricky thing about karma is you have to allow it to do its thing. If I were aware of someone responsible for a crime, for example, I don't see a karmic problem with turning them in. But it would be a mistake to try to enact my own revenge, simply because in the process, I build up more bad juju against myself. If you, for example, go to someone's house and kick their butt as retribution for a previous butt-kicking, you're only guaranteeing yourself another butt-kicking down the line. Best to let the universe handle it. Perhaps, then, if justice really demands a butt-kicking, some universal force will send along an Uma Thurman in a yellow track suit, samurai sword in hand, divine goddess of butt-kicking karma.
Moral: Karma is a divine goddess of butt-kicking. Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson Musings Index
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