karma, common sense, and an antique infantry weapon


I have been thinking recently about something that happened several years ago, when I lived in Anchorage, Alaska.

A friend, who I had met while I was looking for work repairing music electronics, had become a confidant and invited me several times to his home.

He and his wife had very little in terms of cash and financial security, but something about them as a couple made me feel comfortable...and I always enjoyed visiting the riverfront shack.

It is of little consequence in telling the story, but the berry patch at the river bank was marked with a handmade sign..."Janets Berry Patch".

I always appreciated that my friend had the sense to find the best in any situation. That he loved his wife so tenderly and reserved for her that unique dignity impressed me.

anyway....

without a lot of money, and living in large part from fish and meat taken in appropriate season, the boys and 1 girl enjoyed an education from books, music performed in their home, and the wisdom of living from Natures own bounty.

An Alaskan family represented to me an ideal, the very natural state of sustinance from the land and family values.

I did become concerned tho, that springtime had come and summer begin to set in, and the children their might be suffering from a lack of sugar and vitamin C.

Of course, I was as strapped for cash as anybody else and even though I wanted to do something healthy and polite for these growing teens, I was flumoxed.

There was plenty of fishing tackle and hunting rifles with guns in the shack, but healthy sweets were too expensive.

What could I do to help? I knew for certain that my antique german Mauser was a sufficient hunting weapon, but even with ammuntion it would not bring the juice I knew they needed.

So, one afternoon on my way to visit...(it was a long highway drive from Anchorage) I stopped at the grocery and gun trading store with my rifle.

I traded that rifle for all the frozen orange juice I could get.

When I arrived, no one was home yet, but I carefulloy knocked and then used the secret entrance to the kitchen, and left enough juice to fill the large freezer (after rearranging a few whole salmon).

Anyway...no one ever mentioned the cache de' OJ. But I knew then and now in my heart it was the right thing to do.

So...in the context of Karma and free will...what benefit to me can I claim?

Years later, the juice has all been mixed and swilled, and the rifle probably sold to someone who might have another.

Is there any Karma in the summer of juice? Is their any redemption in leaving the bloodletting hunt to someone else? Was this act of surrendering my rifle to finance charity free will? or was I possessed to it... by the welfare and morale I knew those young men desperately needed.


In general, I think that we are called to kindness and personal sacrifice by the needs of others. Accepting that I was more responsible or appropriate for having done the act would certainly be arrogant.

I say "no"...it was not free will or any other act except the binding force of human concern.

Only the Devil could ever deny that truth, probably hoping to install arrogance to replace the service of others.