Often, I feel as though I live according to a pattern of organized chaos. I have a rather acute memory for detail yet, at times, my dreams and actual conversations become muddled. I may confuse days of the week, but I never miss deadlines. I am prone to loosing things, but I am not a forgetful person. There is an underlying order to my disorder. Long before chaos theory was being discussed by physicists, the butterfly effect was eloquently (albeit sans terminology) addressed by Virgina Woolf:
"Multiplicity becomes unity, which is somehow the secret of life."
- Virgina Woolf, Jacobs Room
I too believe in the interconnectedness of lives; existent unity between seemingly random events. I believe that we exist within a universe of interdependence.
Instead of hitting the 'snooze' button on my alarm this morning, I inadvertently turned it off (the butterfly alights). Waking up two hours later than I had intended, I found myself running late for an appointment. I had meant to catch a bus. Instead I phoned for a cab. In the process of scrambling from the cab to the curb I unwittingly left something behind. For the forth time inside of two years, this afternoon, I lost my wallet.
It was forty minutes before I discovered my own neglect. Phoning the cab company left me with little hope. Apparently, the driver's search for the artifacts of my identity (and my eighty-some-odd dollars) was fruitless. Upon returning home, I phoned again. Hope springs eternal and is, on the rare occasion, rewarded. The woman attending the dispatch line informed me that Driver #223 had found my wallet under the back seat. Phew!!!
In addition to unnecessarily spiking my adrenaline and stress levels, I also got myself to thinking. Thinking about all of the things that I've found, after hours, working in bars. Jewelry, wallets, purses, gloves, scarves, sweaters, jackets, keys... the list goes on and on. I wondered how many of these items actually made the journey 'home'. I have never pilfered a misplaced belonging because if I were to do so I would nullify the opportunity of its return and, for me, Karma is real. I propose that 'chance' is not a linear, unidirectional force. Neither is integrity. Many a lost article have been returned to me. I've not
been lucky, I've been honest. The Universe winks and reciprocates my gestures.
"The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others."
As an industry worker, be you a driver, a bartender, a server... whatever, respect your customers. As an individual, respect your fellow person. When you return a lost item you are writing someone else's happy ending. Finders, keepers; loosers, weepers? Bullshit. Unless you are one to believe that a monetary value may be placed upon another's joy. In that case, I recommend questioning your own values.
Nearly eight hours after entering his vehicle, Driver #223 met me again. He drove to my place of work to return my wallet. The fact that my money was gone somehow seemed irrelevant in the face of a man who had gone out of his way to return something, which to him was meaningless. Maybe he took the money you might argue? He might have. But I prefer the mystical to the cynical point of view. In my world, someone bought themselves some negative Karma with my eighty-some-odd dollars today. I had a good day.
