October 13th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Do you believe in Karma? I do.
This story tells it perfectly. I have always said it myself, “what goes around, comes around”.
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
“I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”
“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.
At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.
“Is that your son?” the nobleman asked.
“Yes,” the farmer replied proudly.
“I’ll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll grow to a man you can be proud of.”
And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming’s son graduated from St.Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known. Throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman’s son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son’s name? Sir Winston Churchill.
(Quoted from Opey)
14 Responses to “What goes around, comes around”
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kristarella said: @ 8:22 pm
October 14th, 2007
Well… as a Christian I don’t believe in karma, but I do believe that wise decisions are not made in vain.
Cool story :)
Twig said: @ 12:19 pm
October 15th, 2007
Unfortunately, not true:
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fleming.asp
Twig.
Foulier than Thou said: @ 12:44 pm
October 15th, 2007
Sorry — this has been Snopes’d.
Karma is awesome, but unfortunately, this story’s a falsehood.
Imperiator said: @ 12:46 pm
October 15th, 2007
But you believe in a cosmic jewish zombie who came back from the dead (you would be surprised at how many stories like that appeared before the jesus one and if you blame the devil I will slap the taste out of your mouth)
karma is just to crazy for you though
Stupid is as Stupid does said: @ 1:00 pm
October 15th, 2007
Boy, people on the internet are gullible saps…
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fleming.asp
you should at least check out sources and Snopes is a good place to start for these type of stories. They almost always have them.
Quit being morons…
mount ramparts said: @ 1:04 pm
October 15th, 2007
nice story… but completely fictional.
God said: @ 1:38 pm
October 15th, 2007
Kristarella: maybe this is proof that your God is false? After all, this is proof positive of karma in action, yet you say “as a Christian I don’t believe in karma”; ergo, you are wrong, Hinduism, Buddhism et al are right :)
And I’m now going to have something bad happen for mocking your beliefs….meh, I think it was worth it!
The Foo said: @ 2:36 pm
October 15th, 2007
@Kris
i\’m a christian too and i do believe in karma. although in christianity, it just isn\’t called that — there is a different interpretation to it. god blesses all who do good and you get pennants for each good thing you do in life — the more good you do in life, the reward is going to heaven or maybe something good down the line in your lifetime. i believe that is some form of karma (although it may not be called that). it is a cool story. unfortunately, like some guys have pointed out it is a fictional story. didn\’t know about snopes, and may check out other myths.
@twig & Foulier than Thou
thanks for pointing out the site
@Imperiator
now i must say this, whatever you feel about religion — keep it to yourself as people should be respected for their own beliefs, whatever they may be.
@Stupid is as Stupid does
gullible (on the internet) maybe but moron i don\’t think so. your comment shows your idiotic character just the way your statement was written.
@mount ramparts
yup found that out from some guys already at snopes
@God
everyone has the right to believe in their own version of God and his teachings. No one has the right to say that a God from another religion is false, right or wrong. Saying that, I don\’t think that this blog post should become a discussion for who is right or he is wrong nor do I want it to — so, I\’m just going to leave it at that.
Julia said: @ 3:04 am
October 16th, 2007
I’m a firm believer in karma, although I’m a christian and I think there’s nothing wrong with it. The whole “what goes around, comes around”-thing is simply true if you look at everyday life.
Too bad that the story is fictional, but it’s nice :)
Greets Julia
kristarella said: @ 8:18 am
October 16th, 2007
I wasn’t going to respond here, but since someone else has joined in I will.
Like I said before, I think “that wise decisions are not made in vain”, that is in general wise decisions will lead to good consequences, unwise to bad. I also agree that there are rewards for things, maybe in this life or in heaven. However, “the reward is going to heaven or maybe something good down the line in your lifetime” I have to disagree with the first part of that. Nothing we do contributes to us getting to heaven (I’m reminded of Eph 2:8), perhaps there’ll be a reward once we get there, but anything that implies we can work our way to heaven (apart from what Jesus has done) is unbiblical. Thus my aversion to the word “karma”.
The Foo said: @ 8:26 am
October 16th, 2007
@Kris
“Nothing we can do contributes to us getting to heaven” — very true. I didn’t really phrase that earlier statement to you correctly — there is no guarantee you’ll ever get a reward (like going to heaven) nor has there ever been promised one. I also didn’t choose the right word in saying it is a reward, as reward is a crude way of saying that “I’ll do good only to get something back and get into heaven” … which is obviously not Christian like. I believe that one should do good because he wants to, not because he wants something in return. May need to think more about phrasing my words better in the future.
I guess my interpretation of karma is that the good things you do when you are on earth MAY have an impact on your life but you shouldn’t use karma as a way to get rewards and expect them. Whatever a person does to you no better how good or bad it is, is not for you to judge his destiny or fate nor can you alter it. God has a path for all of us and our life is already mapped out for each and every one of us — it is up to us to follow that righteous path and not deviate from it.
Stupid is as Stupid does said: @ 9:19 am
October 18th, 2007
Moron was originally a scientific term, coined by psychologist Henry H. Goddard from a Greek word meaning “foolish”
I personally think it somewhat appropriate to people that take Internet stories at face value. I had a fellow classmate in my senior year of college, 4 years ago, say that AIDS was a republican government conspiracy to wipe out gay people. He cited many Internet sites, though none credible, and obviously this site falls into the less credible sites.
Also, the whole being Christian and not believing in Karma? What about Galatians 6:7 - “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
That is the basis for what Karma is.
The Foo said: @ 11:53 am
October 18th, 2007
@Stupid is as Stupid does
With the personal nature of this blog, I’m not trying to be an informational reporting resource, am far from it nor do I ever want to be one. I see this blog as a way to express my feelings, opinions and write about the things that interest/ humor me with the exception of slandering and being controversial.
In terms of credibility as a way of demonstrating expertise, no I don’t have that — and people should know that unless I start talking about something in the field of industrial automation and engineering and official factual content related to it. But as a way of trustworthiness, it has to be said I am only as good as the other blog or article I source and express my opinion on it as a way that interest me. I would go as far as to say that most personal and non professional blogs are of that nature. You do have to notice that if something is true or fake, I will come out and to say it outright. In this post, I choose to merely point to the story as an example of how karma presents itself NOT stating the factual value of it — so whether it is credible or not really is irrelevant.
“I personally think it somewhat appropriate to people that take Internet stories at face value.”
I think you meant to say that it is somewhat INappropriate for people to take stories at face value (at least I hope you do) or you’ll be seriously contradicting yourself.
There are times where the things I write may be a myth (as in this case) or it can be true. With the internet being so big, it would be impossible to determine that with everything one writes about. I’ve not heard of snopes before this and I am sure that you and many of us here on the internet will have many sites unknown to us too. The emphasis on whether a post is factual (and true) will also depend on the nature of the post, whether expressing a fact or opinion and how I am writing it. I feel that since I am not an informational resource, not committing slander in anyway, presenting a situation and merely expressing an opinion (instead of a fact), the true or false nature of this article is not as important and pretty trivial.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that you are trying to paint a picture of what this blog is not and in many ways degrade it. I have to admit that I do take offense to it and am a little irritated by your subtle inferences and choice of words. Am I overreacting? Maybe — but that doesn’t make me feel less irritated by your statement like “obviously this site falls into the less credible sites” and others. I should really ignore you but (am not going to) since it is my blog and it is part of a place where I can truly express my feelings and say what I want. Like I said before, gullible I may be but moronic I am not — regardless of whether it is scientific in nature. Being inferred to as being retarded and having a mental age of an 8-10 year old by someone I don’t even know is as insulting as it gets.
That classmate of yours that said “AIDS was a republican government conspiracy to wipe out gay people” .. wow! That’s a pretty bold statement indeed. This is where this site is far from being in the same category as the “less credible” sites you were inferring to– I will never come out and write a blanket statement like that unless I can prove it. There is a difference between being able to prove something, sourcing it from a site that wrote about it and making that fact up. There is also a major difference between a gossip site, a politically left or right wing site, a site that is biased towards a particular area — mine is none of those. The credibility of those sites are the ones that should be questioned and not the ones like mine which do not fall into any category. I’m not a professional journalistic resource. This is not a site that makes facts up as I have better things to do than to do that.
Again writing facts, presenting situations/stating opinions are two different things with a fine line that separates them — I think you fail to see that when reading my posts. I quote Dan Moynihan, NY Times Editor “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not their own facts.”
One last thing, I find it a little strange that you are always writing this anonymously (without a name or website and not showing whatever blog you have). I’ll be interested see who you are, to see how you write your posts and whether you aren’t a “pot calling the kettle black”. Most times when people don’t put their website on, they are trying to hide something.
kristarella said: @ 8:42 pm
October 18th, 2007
“Also, the whole being Christian and not believing in Karma? What about Galatians 6:7 - “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
That is the basis for what Karma is.”
That’s a good example of what I mean when I said “in general wise decisions will lead to good consequences, unwise to bad”. That is, your actions and decisions have consequences. The “karma” that people generally talk about indicates some mystical force that scores up your points for and against you.
I’ll be happy to stand corrected, but I was taught in a class at uni that karma isn’t really the good-for-good and bad-for-bad force that people think it to be. Rather, you get good karma for fulfilling your purpose or duty in life (in Hindu life it would be to obey class laws and fulfil the place that you were born into), then perhaps next time around you would move closer to exiting the cycle. In which case karma is not just a ’cause and effect’ concept.