Do You Believe In Karma?

My cab driver yesterday did. And not just bad karma, but the good kind, the thing you get from doing something better than the usual what’s-in-it-for-me.

He should know. He deals with (so-called) human behavior daily, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day: the good, the bad, the ugly, not to mention the fare beaters.

Did you have any idea how hard cabbies work? I do, because back in the day I had a boyfriend working his way through college driving a cab. Sometimes, to help him get through the shift, I’d ride along, sitting in the front seat. It was totally illegal, of course, but very, very educational.

Although he assured me that people were nicer when I was around, some of them were anything but. Rude, nasty, condescending. And worse. They shouted, they farted, they jumped out of the cab without paying. And those were the good ones.

My cabbie yesterday, Rahmye by name, told me this story:

A couple gets into his taxi, arguing like crazy. Great, I say, that’s always fun. Wait, he says, it gets worse. He takes a route that he believes will avoid traffic, and the woman stops shouting at her boyfriend/husband and starts in on the driver, accusing him of taking them out of their way to cheat them on the fare.

Rahmye, a mild mannered fellow, he who believes in Karma, keeps his cool and offers to let the couple out, no charge, so they can get another cab. The woman likes this deal and is out the door in a flash, but the man feels badly about stiffing the driver (maybe he’s into Karma too) and offers to pay the fare. This sets the woman off into deep orbit, and although I don’t know exactly what she said, it had something to do with the cabbie’s mother, and that did it.

Now the driver, Karma be damned, loses it completely, and so the boyfriend/husband, probably feeling he had to defend his woman, joins the fray. Amazingly, no shots are fired (it was a slow crime day in the city), and the cabbie lived to drive another day.

Lucky for me, because when I met him it was 4 o’clock on a rainy/snowy afternoon, when it is impossible to get a taxi. 
Except for me.

I Have Kab Karma.

Wanna know why . . .

I just found out myself. For many years, friends and foes alike have marveled at my uncanny ability to get a cab in the worst possible situations: in deserted areas, at rush hour, in blizzards at midnight. Cabbies have made U-Turns on crowded streets to pick me up. Once, while waiting for a taxi going west, I passed up a cab going in the opposite direction (never, never do this: need a cab, see one, take it), and five minutes later that very same cab pulled up, now going east. The driver explained that he had seen me waving for a cab and knew that I would never get one where I was, so he came back to pick me up. Holy Kab Karma! I could tell you more, but you get the point.

The thing is, I never realized WHY I had this strange, though admittedly minor, super power. (Personally, I’d rather be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but a girl’s gotta work with what she has). Until yesterday, I had never put the two pieces of the puzzle together. Boyfriend with cab in the past. Attractiveness to cabs in the present. Duh.

Well, after my little talk with the cabbie, I got to thinking. What other kinds of special Karma exist?

•I know that some people attract money, so I suppose they have Kash Karma.
•Sticking with the K’s, there’s Komputer Karma, a gift I definitely do not have, though I valiantly struggle to post blogs without an editor!
•There must be Kid Karma, judging from families with lots of little ones, and Kat Karma, too.
•There’s Kar Karma: those rare souls who always find a parking space. Or get good deals on the pre-owned models, formerly known as used cars.

The New York City Police Department had great Krime Karma this week! Yes, folks, from Sunday evening to noon on Tuesday no serious krimes (er, crimes) were committed in our fair city.

KA-POW! Screamed the headline on the Daily News, followed by (no strangers to alliteration themselves):
No Shootings! No Stabbings! No Slashings!
A Crime Free Day in Gotham!

I guess that this Krime-less period didn’t include minor offenses, though, like the bad behavior experienced by my nice cabbie, but hey, the Kops were thrilled. Anyway, the next time you hop into a cab (Why do we say that? Are we frogs?), remember the cabbie’s story.

And yes, you may hit traffic (And why do we say hit? Sounds like bad Karma to me), but that’s not the driver’s fault. So be nice. As your mother used to tell you, it doesn’t cost anything to be nice, although your mother never had to contend with $20 cab fares. So what? Yes, the trip will be expensive. But nobody is forcing you to take it. And wouldn’t you rather be sitting in a cab than a crowded subway car or waiting in the rain for a bus that never comes?

Sit back, smile, enjoy the ride and consider this: What goes around comes around. Even taxis sometimes. And the Kab Karma you create today can really come in handy tomorrow. Trust me, I know.

SO, DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL KARMA OF YOUR VERY OWN? 
WHICH KIND WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE?

And in the words of that great philosopher, Anonymous: