Friday, September 11, 2009

Karma Points - Exchanged for a better semester, is it not? (Personal Entry)

Karma Points is an imaginary scoring & currency system that one earns for doing good deeds, or loses for doing otherwise.

I really wish there was some kind of heads-up display system for our eyeglasses, or contact lenses. From that interface, some geek could program a "Karma Points System" to keep track of. So Good Deed 1: +700 points, Bad Deed 1: -200 points, would show up on the screen and let me know right away how bad or how good my deed was.

Last Fall, I had a bad semester. A tutor bailed, and my GPA wasn't great at all. That following Spring, I got some pretty solid help, and my GPA was significantly higher. I also went to the temple that Spring. In the temple, we get to spring departed souls out of Hell, so we can understand that it earns us a lot of points.

This semester, I was going to go on a temple trip at the end of August, but I played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas all night, hoping that my cellphone's alarm would wake me in time for the trip. I woke 33 minutes after we were to meet there. I don't remember hearing my cellphone's alarm.

Now my semester is starting to flounder. I've been sleeping several classes, and a tutor didn't show up today. He didn't answer his cell, but did only when I called him from Skype. (Numbers show up as "UNKNOWN" on their screens.) He said that he had a talk with a tutoring coordinator, who emailed me what was up, and the coordinator told him not to meet with me. I checked my email, and there are no messages from him. I don't know if he made this up, but I'll have to follow up Monday.

I asked a group of Institute members: "If giving a homeless man $5 is worth 50 Karma Points, how many is going to the Temple worth?" Doug Harrison made a remark that it's none because we're not Buddhist (or something to that effect.) Andie Spry said "1,000."

(So if 1 Karma Point is worth a dime, then it sounds like giving a homeless man $100 would completely replace going to the temple! I don't think I will, because how often do we see homeless people in Manhattan? Also, the dollar is going the way of the Mexican Peso anyway, but no amount of money can replace springing people out of Hell.)

The next Temple trip is November 7. I hope to get someone to call me that morning, and will set more and louder alarms.

I don't mind what religion "Karma" comes from, because God is the God of ALL. Therefore, he is Karma's architect.

So now that I've missed the Temple trip, I've explored other ways to redeem Karma points anyhow. One way I thought of lately, was by sending the pair of Missionaries - Elder Van Bloem and Elder Rees, to the Manhattan Emergency Shelter on Leavenworth Street, to see Jeff J., a co-worker I knew at my old temp job this last summer. He's had a rough life, and I feel certain that if Jeff joins our church, his situation will improve significantly.

I called the Missionaries to send them there, but they said they're in Wichita, so they'd have to go when they get back, and they want me to come with them. They think I'd somehow earn even more Karma points by going with them than by merely sending them.

In the meantime, let's examine what has been DELETING my Karma Points:

1. Buying lunch at the K-State Student Union. (More details only in a private setting.)

2. Playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. (Look, I don't commit any REAL crime in playing a video game. It's still entertaining. Since nothing gets harmed in real life while playing this, does it really delete my Karma points?)

3. Listening to west-coast rap. (I've been taking a keen interest in it lately, while studying about Compton. In particular, this song's beat fascinates me on a whole new level. I'm only posting the link to the Instrumental because the lyrics are explicit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmWOWmjVTvE Now, does listening to badly-influential music also delete Karma points? Only action does, right?)

4. Only going to church for the last 1 or 2 hours of the service, instead of the full 3. (Therefore, not getting a "sacrament" in the first hour.)

If they do delete Karma points, I hope I can find something more enjoyable that doesn't. Oh, never mind. I can.

I earned Karma points tonight by making a confession to my old teacher.



In second grade, I cheated on an assignment, lied, and got away with it. I looked for my teacher on Facebook and there she was, so I sent her this message:

"In the ('##-'##) school year, when I had you as my teacher, while you were away, I was doing a Reading assignment. I looked at your open answer book, and hurriedly copied them all down.

The last answer read, "Answers may vary." I absent-mindedly copied that as well.

Later, as you graded through our assignments, you summoned me to your desk. You asked me, "Chris, did you copy my answer book?"

Scared stiff, I said "No!" I knew what would happen if I said otherwise. You would've ordered me to put my name on the board, possibly given me some extra assignments, and taken away my recess privilege that day.

You believed me (somehow,) and for the rest of the day, I was happy that I got away with it.

I'm trying to earn Karma points by turning things around, and coming clean on whatever wrongs I've gotten away with.

I see that you're also a K-State fan. Good. Go Wildcats!
"

I wonder how many Karma points that would earn. Anyway, one more thought off my chest.

So these are my thoughts on Karma points, and hope that I will have made enough to have a better week next week!

1 comment:

  1. Do you think if people earned points for doing good, the world would be more enjoyable? I think you touched on that idea, but need to expand it. I think this paper needs a little more focus, or uniformity. You have many ideas here, I think if you bring up karma points, as an imaginary game people should be required to play, it think if you suggest it in a couple places more in the middle of the piece, it could pull this together.

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