I recently dropped off a camera body and some lenses for cleaning and service.
SOP is to leave just the camera body, so the tech/shop owner removed any straps, batteries, accessories, etc., before I left.
I picked up the gear on Saturday but, because I was between autocrosses, it was a fairly quick visit.
When I got home and unpacked/reconfigured my gear, I found something: a battery inside my camera body. I had my batteries, so it wasn’t mine. It was a genuine Canon battery, so about an $80 purchase.
I reached out to the shop: Hey, one of your batteries accidentally came home with my camera, and I can drop it off the next time I’m in Orlando–likely later this week.
I got a nice note from the tech/shop owner thanking me and noting that not everyone’s so honest.
I dropped off the battery Tuesday evening and, again, got a nice thank-you the following day.
While cleaning up the old office yesterday, I found something: a proper, genuine Canon battery for my camera.
Look at you, manifesting E36 M3.
Doing the right thing is never wrong.
Short answer, yes. E36 M3 comes around, man. Always.
That's very thoughtful of you and it's just unfortunate that the universe is gifting you Canon gear but I guess it's still nice.
Kidding, sorta!
1988RedT2 said:
Doing the right thing is never wrong.
Very true.
Several years back, I went to Brumos for a Porsche function. I went to use the men’s room and found a wad of cash on the floor. Was it a twenty wrapped around hundreds or a twenty wrapped around some singles? Not mine to find out. I handed it to the person at the front desk.
I headed to the parts department to buy a Brumos license plate frame. I forget the price–maybe $20 or so.
As I carried the frame to the counter, the dude goes, No charge for that and have a nice day.
Fun story, but I definitely don't believe in "pop culture karma" as seen on "My Name is Earl." This is the type where the good or the bad you do in your lifetime comes back to you in the same lifetime, usually quickly. It's one of the few religious concepts that could, in theory, be scientifically disproven, and I'd bet everything I have that it would be.
The more formal religious definitions of karma include giant afterlife loopholes which mean that you basically shouldn't expect any karmic reward for good things you did within the same lifetime, and that also means it isn't scientifically testable.
barefootcyborg5000 said:
Short answer, yes. E36 M3 comes around, man. Always.
I used to think so. But less and less. I just try to do the right thing regardless of outcome. If karma is a thing then I had to have done something truly terrible in a previous life.
Yes, though I guess you could call it a conscience instead.
Mine usually manifests as being able to sleep at night knowing that the right thing was done.
Or being up half the night when I screw up.
In the deep sense, no. Too much science. Too much entropy.
But, as Gameboy said, pop culture karma, yeah, that's fun. Especially watching less than cool people get what's coming to them.
I watch an Infinity (Nissan product, naturally) being driven like, well a Nissan. Tailgating, cutting people off, the usual. Blasts by us all zippering for a 2 to 1 merge. I thought about toying with him, but my po-po senses were tingling. Sure enough, Datsun boy gets drilled. Easily 65 in a 40.
Yes I do believe in karma. But not in the sense that "the universe will make things right". The universe owes you nothing.
Instead, doing the right thing makes you feel good and therefore you interpret what happens to you in a better light. In this example, David finds the battery and goes "gee - it sure is nice to have another battery I didn't know I had!" Instead he could have interpreted the find in a different way, like "I thought I told JG he was supposed to ask to borrow stuff and is supposed to return it to me, not just dump it in my office - this is the LAST STRAW."
The universe is not fair. But we are all in control of how we interpret what happens. Karma is a framework for interpreting what happens. (And a pretty good one too, I believe).
I strongly believe in the concepts of karma, heaven and hell, call it what you will--I just also believe that we experience these in real time, as the consequences of our behavior, and also defer some of these consequences to the next generation. So I guess my understanding of karma is that you reap what you sow, AND you pay it forward. If that's not a strong argument for "don't be a dick," I don't know what is.
Margie
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
This ^
I have a karma story that also involves camera's but I don't know what to make of it...
While attending an airshow I went to a porta-potty and found a high end 35mm camera in it. I took a picture of my bare bum with it and then took it to lost n' found . While dropping it off, its owner (attractive young lady) came running up excitedly asking "has anyone turned in a camera". The person at the table told her "yes, this man just brought it to us" 
The camera owner went on and on thanking me and I was just dying of embarrassment wanting to get the berk out of there.
It was supposed to be a combo job of doing the right thing while exploiting an opportunity to do something funny but I wound up being hugely embarrassed.
In reply to RX Reven' :
Yeah. That's it. It's like obscenity: You know it when you see it.
Also, forgot to add that I have known David Wallens for going on 30 years now. He can drive me nuts (as anyone will after decades of working together), but I do not know anyone who strives as hard to be kind, just and ethical.
Margie
RX Reven' said:
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
This ^
I have a karma story that also involves camera's but I don't know what to make of it...
While attending an airshow I went to a porta-potty and found a high end 35mm camera in it. I took a picture of my bare bum with it and then took it to lost n' found . While dropping it off, its owner (attractive young lady) came running up excitedly asking "has anyone turned in a camera". The person at the table told her "yes, this man just brought it to us"
The camera owner went on and on thanking me and I was just dying of embarrassment wanting to get the berk out of there.
It was supposed to be a combo job of doing the right thing while exploiting an opportunity to do something funny but I wound up being hugely embarrassed.
Quoting for posterity. Posterior-ity?
Opportunity NOT missed. Well played. And thanks for the laugh.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Colonial photo and hobby?
Unfortunately, I don't believe in anything. However, just is case, I try to help anyone i find in need. People I help always try to give me money, but I always tell them that I am trying to earn my way into heaven just in case. I am actually hoping that just in case there is a thing called luck and you either earn good luck or bad luck, I am saving my good luck to wake up tomorrow and die in my sleep of old age at around 85.
Have a nice day. 
TJL (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Colonial photo and hobby?
Kiwi Camera on Virginia Drive.
I don't believe in Karma because all of the evil people would vanish in a puff of smoke and those mass murderers wouldn't have been born. However, just in case, I snow blow out 2.5 blocks of my older neighbors yards and rescue lost kitties just in case.
I guess it depends on your definition of Karma. I have been reading through this thread and have already seen a few answers that imply several different potential concepts.
... which is pretty accurate. The original Sanskrit term has multiple interpretations in Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Some scriptures indicate that it has a Dharmic intent - meaning that actions have repurcussions in the life right now, and Samsaraic energy that kinda waits until the next life.
A super short version is that Dharma (righteousness, morality, merit) exists as a present energy. Find an extra Canon battery in your camera and you return it, and magically another one becomes found. Samsara (circle of life, sum total of all life in eternity, existence, death and rebirth) places Karma in a more global perspective in that leading a good, charitable, honest life in this incarnation leads you to a higher level of enlightenment during your next incarnation until you finally reach the outer circle and are released (Moksha).
I, for one, mostly believe in both, but not in the Sanskrit/Hinduist construct.
I like the concept, but the real world evidence seems to fall very short.
Putin is very much alive and very very wealthy. It's likely his end will be violent, but likely no where nearly as bad as many his "orcs" subjected on many. I would say, "live by the sword, die by the sword" tends to be a bit more generally true.
Realistically, if you expect Karma, you are really doing it wrong. The act of doing the right thing in it's own should be enough reward. As I once told someone "helping someone who truly needs help is one of the most rewarding things you can do". Unfortunately "helping someone who doesn't need it" (being taken advantage of) is one of the worst things you can experience, and figuring out the difference between the two before hand can be difficult.
My wife and I where the witness and first responders to this car crash that occurred right before our eyes. I didn't know that I could even run let alone that fast... I sure hope that someone was watching. 
She survived a something like 10 barrel roll flip out onto a frozen slough. I hope that earned a lot of bonus points.
When I was twelve I met my first wife. She was a waitress at a little restaurant. She was 18. Didn't talk to her. Also in the same time frame I met my second wife's older sister, she was friends with my Brother. So at this time my first wife and my second wife where in AA and my second wife was her sponcer. When I was 21 I met my first wife (again?) at a bar. Well that created a child and she was babysat by the chef at that little restaurant where they both worked. So during my first marriage we owned a house and had a rummage sale and my second wife her Mom and the older sister arrive at the sale. They bought some items for my second wife's children. This led to a story about the two of them in a confrontation at a bar that my sister-in-law worked as a bartender at (before she married my brother). So some years go by and we get divorced. I all but forgot about the story. I stayed single for quite a while. So then I have my own apartment and start going out to try to meet some one. I met one gal and seemed to hit it off. Spent some time with her that evening at the bar. Finally ask her what her name was. Well her name was the same as my ex. Nope. I didn't ask for her number. So some time goes by and I end up going to the bar that I met my first wife at. After a few weekends I end up meeting my second wife. My sister-in-law younger sister was a bartender at this bar when I met both I did not recognize my second wife from the day years ago. Did not know until she told me the same story about the incident at the bar with my first wife. It never fazed me at that time.
When I met my second wife's family I felt like I knew them. Come to find out, my brother new them, my Dad knew them(he worked at a grocery store within walking distance from there house) my sister-in-law new them. I even saw my second wife's two younger sisters at a rollar rink when we where in middle school and highschool. They even had a picture of me in the backround at that rink. There is even more to this but I would think that something had to do with this unusual arrangement of events. Karma, coincidence, fate?? None of this really made me think what's going on until I was divorced the second time after a NDE.
MyMiatas said:
When I was twelve I met my first wife. She was a waitress at a little restaurant. She was 18. Didn't talk to her. Also in the same time frame I met my second wife's older sister, she was friends with my Brother. So at this time my first wife and my second wife where in AA and my second wife was her sponcer. When I was 21 I met my first wife (again?) at a bar. Well that created a child and she was babysat by the chef at that little restaurant where they both worked. So during my first marriage we owned a house and had a rummage sale and my second wife her Mom and the older sister arrive at the sale. They bought some items for my second wife's children. This led to a story about the two of them in a confrontation at a bar that my sister-in-law worked as a bartender at (before she married my brother). So some years go by and we get divorced. I all but forgot about the story. I stayed single for quite a while. So then I have my own apartment and start going out to try to meet some one. I met one gal and seemed to hit it off. Spent some time with her that evening at the bar. Finally ask her what her name was. Well her name was the same as my ex. Nope. I didn't ask for her number. So some time goes by and I end up going to the bar that I met my first wife at. After a few weekends I end up meeting my second wife. My sister-in-law younger sister was a bartender at this bar when I met both I did not recognize my second wife from the day years ago. Did not know until she told me the same story about the incident at the bar with my first wife. It never fazed me at that time.
When I met my second wife's family I felt like I knew them. Come to find out, my brother new them, my Dad knew them(he worked at a grocery store within walking distance from there house) my sister-in-law new them. I even saw my second wife's two younger sisters at a rollar rink when we where in middle school and highschool. They even had a picture of me in the backround at that rink. There is even more to this but I would think that something had to do with this unusual arrangement of events. Karma, coincidence, fate?? None of this really made me think what's going on until I was divorced the second time after a NDE.
You know that there is a 3 strikes and you are out rule, right?
In reply to MyMiatas :
That's some Amy level E36 M3.
