Sunday, October 9, 2005 - Instant karma for pizza?

I was crossing the road yesterday after doing some errands, such as going to the post office and the bank, and I was stopped by a guy who was sitting on the bus stop bench close to my home. As I've mentioned numerous times before there are lots of homeless people in Santa Monica and I am quite used to getting panhandled on a daily basis. Usually I ignore them, as most of them are quite obviously 'substance abusers' of one sort or another, not really looking for a meal but a contribution towards their next high.

This particular gentleman was a large black guy in a dirty black T-shirt and jeans, he initially asked me for money, which I  always ignore, as I initially did in his case.

 Just as I refused to offer him money he held up a huge zip-lock bag containing various prescription medicines in their brown vials and pleaded with me to make him a sandwich if I lived locally.

I returned home and microwaved the frozen French bread pizza we had in our freezer, going back to the corner where we met , I expected him to be gone after the 10 minutes it took to cook the pizza , but he was still there whereupon I gave him the pizza and $1 for a soda.

 Upon reading this people may think what a nice guy or why is he boasting by broadcasting his acts of charity ?

After spending some time thinking about it I decided the real reason I fed him was for ME! In addition to the instant feel good gratification  you get by helping someone out I am a great believer in karma. Having not had a particularly great or lucky year I am hoping for some instant payback for my actions from the karma fairy or wherever good karma comes from?

 The ironic thing is that when I handed the guy the greasy, cheesy, pepperoni topped pizza, he explained that the medication he was taking was for his heart. I am now left totally confused as to if giving  a heart patient pizza counts as negative or positive karma?!?!