Turtle Hill Events

There's this concept of moving karma I got from somewhere. Basically, it's in your best interests as a person who is likely to move a number of times in your life to help others move. That way, when it's your turn to move, you should have all the help you could possibly want, right? But what if that doesn't happen? What if you're that person who helps everyone else move but when it's your turn everyone else is too busy to help you? That's just not right!

This kind of harkens back to Magic 8-ball. It's the same kind of modern-day magic that can be harnessed like people of old might have done. I think maybe if you don't help someone who helped you move to move, then you might be in for the modern equivalent of the malocchio. Essentially, you'll be doomed to deal with bad luck in some way. Your pipes will burst at a bad time or your next house sale will fall through or whatever. Or maybe no one will be available when you go to move again.

I'm not saying that's what happens. I'm just saying that's what I'm kind of afraid will happen to me. So I always try to help people move if I can, and I'll change my plans if necessary to accommodate the people who helped me move in the past to help them move. Those are double karma points. That's not just paying it forward, that's paying it back! And I'm all about earning those karma points. 

I love my Magic 8-balls. Yes, plural. I have a purse one, a full-sized (like a softball) one, and an app on my phone. I might have a Magic 8-ball problem. Nah, I can quit any time I want. Any time. Well, signs actually point to no there, but I can pretend, can't I? 

So, why so many? Well, have you ever been ambivalent about a decision you needed to make? Like, should I go to a movie tonight? Should I order pizza? Should I scoop the kitty litter? Yeah, like that. I am constantly plagued by the little choices in life. How many times can my partner, J, and I have the same conversation about what we're going to have for dinner tonight? Jeez! My solution to the yes and no questions of my world? Ask my friend, the Magic 8-ball. 

But there are rules, because, see, I treat it like a sacred divinatory device. That's the GODS speaking to me through that Mattel m-fer! So if I don't want to know their answer, I should be courteous enough not to ask, right? Listen, don't you hate it when someone asks your opinion on something and then just ignores it? I feel like the 8-ball Gods feel the same way. "Why'd you bother asking me, jerk!" 

So, if you ask the 8-ball, you have to be willing to do what it says. My daughter has gotten in on the action, and in some ways, I think it's been bad for her. She reports that she finds the concept that it could say ANYTHING anxiety-inducing. My housemate says it's like when you flip a coin and while it's in the air, you suddenly know which way you want it to go. The ambivalence can suddenly vanish in the face of the total decision-making POWER of the 8-ball. 

But I find that helpful. I really, truly, have never regretted the decision my 8-ball has given me. To me, it is a surrendering of the future to the deities Mattelius. Take me where you will, oh Toymakers of Fate. Well, there was that time when I told it, "Wait, no, two out of three..."