Karma – A Childhood Lesson

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Tuesday 28 February, 2017 by Uncle Spike

This is a true tale that happened within the last hour. It is perhaps small and maybe insignificant to some, but played out as part of a parent-child lesson we happened to be discussing, father to son, at that very moment.

Since our kiddo was just a few months old, I would take him in his pushchair to the nearest road to ‘watch the cars’. He soon learned to wave in order to gain a response – double air-horn blasts and a wave back from the driver of a big truck always being the highest accolade a young kid could receive. The lesson had started… ‘give and you shall receive’, you ‘reap what you sow’ etc….. Basically, I used to explain that if you do a bad thing, then most likely a bad thing will happen in return; but if you do a good thing, more times than not, you’ll find a positive response. Not always, sure, but hey, it must be worth trying, yeah?

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Nine years on and we still wave and try and spread a little smile to those we perceive are in need (i.e. anyone we see). We live in a rural village in Türkiye by the way, so for some this may read strange 🙂 Anyway, whilst waiting for the school bus each morning, kiddo waves at the passing bicycles, tractors, cars, trucks, and small buses for other schools. He has slowly built a small but varied group of ‘happy responders’.

One passing school bus driver was a normal guy in his 60’s who never saw us to be honest, never responded. Kiddo said last year, “I’m gonna make him smile one day”. Months of proactive waving on, and he now flashes his lights, beeps his horn and waves furiously – often before kiddo does. This morning was another first. He pulled over and jumped out, came over and said to me, “What a lovely young man. Thank you, he makes my day”. He then turned to kiddo, shook his hand and thanked him. He then gave him a lovely snack bar for ‘after school’ and left to drive to the next village.

Karma.

Yes, it was a small action, but couldn’t demonstrate better how one’s own treatment of others does matter in this world. There will be many who may mock such liberal attitudes, but think about it; whilst being positive is not always met with a positive response, I’m pretty sure that dishing out the negative (or doing nothing) is rarely meets with a positive response.

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