Cherry Saturday, April 4, 2020

~ Jenny

Today is Tangible Karma Day, which is specifically about recycling, but more in general about doing unto others. What goes around comes around. Pay it forward. What you put into the universe comes back to you. As you sow . . . you get the idea.

I have a sign in my kitchen:

That helps keep me honest. I think we’re pretty good here on Argh, such nice people, but if there was ever a time to polish up our karma situation, it’s now. Let’s be excellent to each other.

48 thoughts on “Cherry Saturday, April 4, 2020”

  1. I watched the National Theatre’s streaming of ‘One Man, Two Govners’ on YouTube last night – https://www.youtube.com/user/ntdiscovertheatre

    It took a while to get going, but then got sillier and sillier. (It’s a farce, a modern adaptation of an C18 Italian original.) James Corden was brilliant. I checked, and it looks like it’s available worldwide, for free, until Wednesday. They’re planning to stream a different play each week during the lockdown in the UK, starting Thursday evening each week. The next two are ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Treasure Island’, and then one I’ve put in my calendar: ‘Twelfth Night’ with Tamsin Grieg as Malvolio.

    I used to go to the National all the time when I lived in London in the eighties, but can’t afford it now – and of course, don’t live within reach, either. I think this is a wonderful thing for them to have done.

    2. I watched it too. Lord knows I am not a James Corden fan because hoo boy, is he ever much, but I found myself getting more into it as it went on and was delighted by the end. I did like the guv’nor couple, especially how crazy partly naked they kept going later on. And the hummus sandwich bit. And Christine. And I gotta say, eating cheese out of a mousetrap… And the dance party ending.

      Overall, recommended to check it out this week. Andrew Lloyd Webber is streaming shows weekly as well, though I haven’t gotten to “Dreamcoat” watching yet.

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag

    3. In the late ’70s they had cheap tickets for unsold seats at the matinees. I saw John Guilgud (sp) and Ralph Richardson in No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter. It was a good time to be a vacationing student.

  2. Oooh. Karma is a fave topic of mine.

    It’s a lot less linear than people think it is. And it is very, VERY subtle

    There *is* instant karma where fruit-of-action occurs very soon after the initiating action. That’s the least subtle level.

    I may’ve mentioned on here before, I was fortunate to sit in a talk the HH The Dalai Lama did in South Africa. He explained that EVERYone’s karma interacts with everyone else’s.

    He went on to say that every person in the venue had their own karma and it was interacting with every other person’s karma in that space. It was a 1224 seater capacity venue and it was full!

    I changed how I interacted with people. Instead of basic politeness, I started to be friendlier. It’s made my life easier in many small ways. And I suppose, according to His Holiness, in ways I don’t even know, karmically speaking.

    1. That pretty much replicates the virus. If you violate social distancing, you’re not just risking your life, you’re risking everybody.

      What I’ve noticed in the two times I’ve been out in the last month (trips for meds and food) is that people are very friendly, from a distance of course, but smiling and patient. There’s a real we’re-all-in-this-together vibe going on here, and I’m in New Jersey so it’s not like we’re a warm and friendly place as a rule. Maybe the whole idea of karma is going to be part of the new normal.

      1. I heard that today, around 10:45 pm, some big planetary convergence or something is supposed to happen that is important for the future. It’s supposed to be a good time for everyone to collectively (but individually) meditate or pray for healing and positive renewal for the whole planet.

        So if more people are in a kind mood, I’m thinking that will help and add some good karma, too. Be great if a healthier planet and better understanding of our interconnectedness and interdependence at all times, in addition to the power of kindness, would be part of new normal.

  3. I must mention the lovely German Shepherd who boarded where I used to work twenty years ago. Her name was Karma. “Good Karma!” “Bad Karma!”

  4. Interestingly, Karma is supposed to carry over from lifetime to lifetime, so it fits with Lily.

    Wiccans/Pagans in general tend to believe in what is often called the Law of Returns. Basically, what you put out there is what you get back. Some take it even further and call it the Threefold Rule and say what you put out comes back to you times three. I’ve seen it happen, although I’m still waiting for Karma to catch up with a few folks…

    1. I’ve never been a believer in the Threefold Rule, which I know is bad to say when pagan. But seriously, I am also waiting for karma to catch up with a few folks….certain relatives in particular. I know a lotta Karma Houdinis, as they’d say on TV Tropes.

  5. I almost ended up with an “I saw that–Karma” mug (part of the crush’s gift swap game item) until it got stolen from me. At least I photographed it first. Then he gave me a drama llama mug later, so it’s all good.

    I am acquainted with someone who is named Karma IRL (I wanted to be friends with her, but that didn’t work out, sigh), who has a lot of weird health problems. Under those circumstances, well, a lot of ironic thoughts come to mind, but that would not be something one should say, especially since she’s a nice person and doesn’t deserve the crazy amount of shit that has gone down with her.

    1. I just watched a video on the CDC website that has the Surgeon General demonstrating how to make a cloth face mask without sewing. You need fabric (bandana, towel, tshirt, etc.) and two rubber bands that become the earpieces. I’m not sure how comfortable it will be but it did look something I could do. Hope this helps!

  6. Our governor told people yesterday to start wearing fabric masks outside the house, even outdoors while exercising distant from other people. I have zero sewing equipment and zero appropriate fabric. I tired to make some no-sew masks last night from a T-shirt and it was an utter failure. A neighbor put out a notice that she’s been making fabric masks to donate to medical clinics following a particular official pattern. She offered to make them for any neighbors who need them at no charge. I picked up two she sewed for me and my husband this morning from her mailbox and left a donation for materials. Her good karma points should be sky high. I’m so grateful for her help. Such a nicer response to this horrible situation than the still at large person who has been going out at night in our area and shooting out windows of public buildings. Or local rec center looks like a war zone.

    1. I don’t have much in the way of sewing supplies at my house–I always sewed at my volunteer job because they had big tables. So I am SOL on masking, fabric thicker than T-shirts, no elastics, etc. I think I will just tie a microfiber towel around my face…or just not leave the house, really, which is what I am doing anyway.

      1. Sewing skills? I have sewn on a button. I have darned a sock (and thrown away the darned sock.) That’s my limit, I think. But the Department of Corrections has had inmates turning out what are specifically labeled Sneeze Guards. Two have been issued to every inmate and corrections officer and “essential personnel” (which includes me). Me in mine is my new Facebook profile picture.

  7. I musta’ done something terrible in either this or a past life, because karma is clobbering me this week. Background anxiety over COVID-19 generally, plus a cat needing emergency surgery on Wed., or she could have died (she’s getting better, but still on pain meds), and then yesterday my 85 yo mother had what I think (getting this third-hand through siblings) was a massive aneurysm last night and is pretty much gone, just waiting to pull the plug. We weren’t close and she herself remarked recently that she had a good life, so I’m not particularly grieving, but I’m sad for my brothers who were close to her, and it’s all happening an impossible distance away, and the state isn’t holding funerals (due to COVID-19), which has to be hard for them. I’m really going to need to hear everyone’s happies tomorrow!

      1. I know how you feel, Gin. You can’t really grieve because nobody wants to live like that, but it’s still a piece missing from your life that you have to deal with. I’m sorry.

      1. It is also hard to lose someone with whom you had a troubled relationship.I suggest you call your brothers so you can hear (if only by tone of voice) how they are holding up. A feeling of solidarity between the distant and onsite children can be a tremendous comfort to both of you.

    9. Gin, I’m so sorry. It’s hard no matter how your relationship was. Take good care of yourself as well as your brothers.

  8. Can the diner have signs like that please? Instead of vintage coke ads etc?

    And someone on Instagram made a pin that said, “be kind or be quiet,” which I take as a good reminder for myself. Also, it was pre Corona during all of the political nastiness, so it resonated.

  10. So much stuff; maybe the idea of ‘tangible karma’ will finally motivate me. HAHAHA.

  11. My brother just came in to mention the subject of Masks. Unfortunately we’ve just disposed of our mother’s stash of fabric, which would undoubtedly have outlasted any reasonable life projection for us:

    She who dies with the most fabric wins.

    She who dies with the most fabric is still dead.

    When’s the yard sale?

  13. I was raised in an agnostic childhood. Actually my mother had been raised Irish Catholic – the local priest came every Sunday for dinner – but she rejected the church as soon as she was an adult. So we never went to church growing up, other than neighbors who worried about me and invited me to theirs. She always let me make my own decision and it was interesting but when you grow up without instruction it’s hard to believe. So somewhere in adulthood I latched onto Karma. I decided that I would try to just be as good a person as I could be and hope for the best. I figured if there actually was a god that he/she would cut me more slack for being honest in my non-belief than hypocritical in pretending.

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