I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well. ~ Yannik Noah

I am a believer in Karma, to me it’s simple physics. Like the proverbial pebble into the pond the energy pushes ripples of water out until they hit a barrier, then they reflect and return. I believe that’s exactly how Karma operates. You put energy out there, positive or negative and it flows and then rebounds and comes back to you. What we don’t ever know is how far away the reflecting barrier is from the start. So, consequently, we never know how quickly Karma (the return) will show up. Sometimes the barrier is very close and the return almost instantaneous, hence, instant Karma. Most of us appreciate the type of instant Karma where someone does something bad and moments later something bad happens to them. Like in the image below, you get immediately what you give and I think this is often how people think of instant Karma.

But there is also positive instant Karma and so tonight a quick little story about the Endymion Dragon in the picture at the top of the post.

It was my first Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and it was absolutely magical. Most people when they think of Mardi Gras think about drunken crowds on Bourbon Street and women lifting their shirts so that people will rain beads down on upon. And while Bourbon Street absolutely represents a drunken debaucherous side of Mardi Gras, it is such a tiny part of the month long celebration in New Orleans.

The real center piece to Mardi Gras are the parades, the societies that sponsor them and the balls and parties that they throw to celebrate the season. I’ve never been someone who has enjoyed parades. Even as a kid I really didn’t enjoy them, a bunch of fire trucks, old people and kids marching and some poorly playing bands never got me all that excited. And the crappy balloons and toys they sold, I never got them and honestly had no interest in them.

But Mardi Gras parades are a completely different animal. There is a complete culture around the parades. Families show up on places like Charles Street hours before the parade. They bring picnic dinners and folding ladders with seats on them for the children. The parades are extravagant events, the floats are amazing as some are artistic, some comical, some political. The krewes on the floats spend thousands of dollars of their own money to provide “throws” for the parades. Throws are the things the krewes toss into the crowd from the floats, mostly beads,dubloons, small toys and plastic cups. But every krewe has at least one signature throw, the really nice throw they provide but only a small number of them. For the Endymion Krewe, it’s the dragon.

So at my first parade, I was intermixed in the crowd with people from NOLA as well as other tourists. While hanging out with families, who more often that not offer you something to eat and drink after talking for just a few minutes, I was super excited. As the floats came by, some parades have nearly 100, along with horse riders and the best marching bands from all over the southeast, I was catching and collecting throws and there was a little boy from the family I’d been hanging with next to me. So we fell into a pattern and anytime I caught a toy or a big string of beads I’d hand them over to him. He would get so excited and it was a total blast for me as well.

So at one point, the parade was paused, this is always crazy as now all of the throws are happening right in front of you and beads and other throws fall like rain from the sky. At one point, one of the riders pulls up a dragon and is teasing the crowd and people are going nuts. Suddenly, we make eye contact and he kind of smirks, like please dude, I’m not throwing this to you. But in that moment I gesture to the little guy below me and the rider got what I was saying. So he tosses me the dragon and I give it to the little guy and he goes completely nuts he’s so excited. The rider whistles, and as I look up the dragon in the picture above is flying at me. Instant Karma! My good act led to an instant and amazing gift, one of the best throws I’ve ever gotten and absolutely my favorite.

The point to this is be kind my friends, wherever possible. Don’t make yourself a door mat, don’t let people take advantage of you but be kind and I promise it will lead to happier days. ~ Rev Kane