My Name is Nicko

A few hours ago, I was still thinking of an answer to the question, “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?” I tried so hard, until my brain died. So I decided to watch some television, and my favorite mustached American friend was on, Earl Hickey. In the episode, Earl and his brother, Randy, were tied because Earl’s previous partner in crime, Ralph, just came out of jail. The bottom line is for them to be set free Randy suggested “Try callin’ Karma.” Earl then replies, “It’s Karma, Randy. Not Lassie!” The show “My Name Is Earl” is about Earl Hickey who, after a twist of faith, firmly believes in karma. He has a list of all the things he has done wrong in order to correct them in the hope that his good deed be rewarded. And like Earl, I too believe in karma. And so the answer to the question that killed my brain: I believe in karma even though I cannot prove it.

I remember back in my early years in high school, I am not proud to admit that I cheated during a long test in Social Science. I forgot the answer to the question, “What was the name of the super-continent quadrillion years ago?” Struggling to get a passing grade, I was desperate to make my eyes travel to the far regions of the classroom, but no answer came. Then, for some reason, our social science teacher went out of the classroom. Suddenly buzzing sounds resonated in our classroom. I tried to restrain myself to resort to such scheme, but peer pressure and the fear of failing overcame my system. So I asked what the name of the freaking super-continent was. Pangaea was the answer. I am ashamed to say that I got an A (a big freaking A!) on that long test. I thought everything was alright, but karma hit back. Just after that long test, I was walking to the cafeteria when a sudden gush of wind shook the acacia trees. Unconsciously, I started scratching myself. It turns out, some stupid little bug made its way on my back and I got “higad-ized”.

Another instance is when I was in my late years in high school. It was lunch period, and so the whole class went berserk as we would use to be. My “barkada” gathered on the stone bench outside the classroom. And, as a usual pastime, we backstabbed our teachers like there was no tomorrow. We repeated at their “kabarokan” or mispronunciations, exaggerated their mannerisms, and laughed at their appearances. It was clean fun, the teachers need not to know them (therefore I made the time of this incident vague). Back then we were dubbed by our classmates as “Demons” for our non-stop backstabbing. But on that certain lunch period, our demonic acts went out of hand. Instead of eating and preparing for a long test for the next period, we feasted on a bunch of anecdotes from the previous classes paired with a great heaping of laughter. We had a lot of fun, but it all died when the bell rang and the long test started. At the end of the day, almost half of the barkada failed miserably, including me (I didn’t resort to cheating this time, in the fear of being “higad-ized” again).

But karma is not only for the bad acts, it is also for the good ones. Probably the best example of this is the story of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Day and night, she helped people. She founded the Sisters of Charity that housed orphans and the homeless dying. Her foundation has nursed children from malnutrition, and granted and respected the last requests of the dying. A striking story about Mother Theresa was when they were able to rescue a dying Muslim from the streets. They nursed him until he was able to speak. Able to speak, he told Mother Theresa that why were they helping him even though he was not Christian. Mother Theresa, as told countless of times, just smiled and asked the dying Muslim what he wants before he dies. Mother Theresa’s good deed earned her the Nobel Peace Prize and other awards. Many people also donated to her foundation. She never used for herself the money that she received, but it all went to her foundation. The good deed she did was paid with financial support for her foundation.

Karma is such a powerful ideology. It has emerged in different cultures through different names; the Golden Rule, what goes around comes around, do good and good will be done unto you, etc. I have heard and experienced countless events where karma was at work. Though no scientific evidence shows this relationship between human acts, I firmly believe in it. But the fruits of karma should not be the intention in doing good things. Rather, the passion to help others should reign. The effect of karma is just a byproduct for the person to appreciate his good act.

“Karma. You gotta love it!” –Earl Hickey