Treat others as you'd like them to treat you.
I nearly posted this last week since it involves witnessing a crime but it fits karma too, even if I'm a cynical cow who doesn't believe in karma.

In my first year of University I got trapped in a bar fight in Lavery's, a well-known Belfast drinking establishment. My friends and I, on a night out celebrating someone's birthday, were trapped in the corner of the upstairs bar while we watched a full-scale riot erupt - someone was stabbed, another had his head battered with a chair, we were getting threatened to stay put with broken bottles... that kind of pleasant experience. The bouncers abandoned the scene when the blood started flowing. The police arrived and stood and watched from a safe distance (and bearing in mind that RUC men are armed, they still weren't getting involved), then finally a passing army foot patrol raced in and rather forcibly restored order and we managed to flee from the premises unscathed.

After the fight we walked home shocked and shaken. We all had images of people lying broken among the glass shards on the floor. My friend's boyfriend stopped to give me a hug - probably to stop the trembling - and our lips met in one of those "jesus, we're alive!" kisses. I clung on to him like I was drowning and tried to forget that my friend was in hospital with internal bleeding from her kidneys.

The following day was the first killing by the vigilante group Direct Action Against Drugs. It was rumoured that the fight we'd witnessed the night before was related to the shooting. Is that the karma bit? Nope.

Karma. Was karma losing all my friends when they found out what I'd done? No, that was my just punishment for betraying a friend. I made a really stupid mistake at the age of 19 and I paid for it, and I deserved to. I learned a huge lesson from it. Karma, however, was me developing low grade kidney disease ten years later.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Sun 24 Feb 2008, 16:06, 6 replies)

If it was just kissing.....
I hardly think you deserved to be ostracized considering the situation you had been in. The reality is we don't realise that situations are not all black and white until we get older and wiser. I don't think the great Karma fairy would have seen it as a punishable offence.

And from what you tell us of your exploits you seem to live a full and wonderful life despite your illness.

*I take it your friend with the internal bleeding survived*
( girlinthehole, Sun 24 Feb 2008, 16:51, closed)

^
Yup, she was fine. And my kidney thing is so low-grade it's hardly noticeable - I just, er, pee more blood than I should sometimes. I think it's fairly common.

Yeah, I don't think kissing someone particularly constitutes infidelity - it's the emotional intensity behind it that matters. It's just that at 19 years old I was pretty naive and so everything was skewed dramatically and out of proportion.

Interestingly, they all stayed friends with him, possibly due to the fact that he was popular, good-looking and told them all it was my fault. Karma wasn't too harsh though - I got nicer, better friends and I became a nicer, better friend.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Sun 24 Feb 2008, 17:04, closed)

Sounds like
you were better off without those friends - takes two to tango and all that!

Glad the kidneys don't bother you too much - keep drinking lots...erm...not alcohol ;)
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Sun 24 Feb 2008, 22:25, closed)

"All your fault"?
Didn't he go to hug you first, allowing you to get close etc?

Anyway, I'm with BGB, an emotionally confused kiss hardly deserves loss of friends and kidney disease!
(Adamish Time of death, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 10:35, closed)

^true
(and I'm not seriously suggesting it was karma, just coincidence). And the kissing may have gone on for quite a bit... but it was the hurting a friend thing that I felt bad about for years.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 11:55, closed)

Near death
or experiences that remind you of your mortality are well known to make you horny. It's a kind of wake up call to make more people.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Mon 25 Feb 2008, 16:12, closed)