Some of my oddest thoughts occur to me when I am in the shower. Maybe it is the relaxing power of the water. Maybe it is the heat and steam. Something happens that makes me think about things that usually wouldn't occur to me. As I was showering tonight after a long day of yard work, the thought came to me, "How would I measure up in the end?"
Most religions teach that if you follow the tenets of your faith and obey the rules of your God then one day you will be summoned forth to His or Her presence. Usually there, you are judged based on just how good a (Insert Religious Group Name here) and if you measure up, then you are permitted to play harps, dance with virgins etc. Of course, if you don't measure up you generally get sent some place very unpleasant.
As a general rule, the judgement really has nothing to do with how good a person you actually were, but how many of Big Happy Sky Guy's laws you kept or broke and if you correctly painted the right portion of your anatomy blue on the holy days. It has very little to do with how well you treated those not of your faith or how big a Dick you were.
Now some faiths/philosophies ask the broader question of "How much good did you do for the world and people around you?" They ask if you were kind. They ask if you left the world a better place than when you came into it. So I pondered when the final measure is taken, how would I measure up?
When I was younger, I was not a very nice person. I was a Con Man, a Grifter and occasionally a thief. Even more important is the fact that I was VERY good at it. Now even to this day, I comfort myself with the knowledge that I never conned an Honest Person and I never stole from places that couldn't afford the loss. I did what I had to do to survive. It is not something I am particularly proud of, but it is what it is.
Since those times, I have done my very best to live a better life. I help when I can and do what I can to make the world a better place. In some cases, it is a pointedly biting Blog or Article. In others, it is as simple as composting and recycling. I try to help people when I see they need help and I try my very best to do no harm.
I don't know if Karma exists and I am not sure how far I have come in balancing those scales. I suppose I won't know for sure till it is far to late. All I can do is to keep trying and working to making the world a better place than when I first got here.
I suppose it doesn't matter what your faith is or even if you have one. No matter what you believe or Who you believe in, the scales are still there. What is wrong with everyone trying to make the world just a little bit better?
Brew long and prosper
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