Karma Makes a Comeback

I realize that karma, like beauty (and every other human nervous system construction) is in the eye of the beholder. What I call karma may be different from how you think about karma. I'm not talking about fate, or destiny, or any flavor of a predestined God's will or something that was meant to be.

I'm talking about a balance, not retribution. I'm talking about a natural occurrence of winners and losers, not an NFL-ish parity where everybody has an even win-loss record. I'm talking about yin and yang as complementary aspects of a whole, not an oppositional tit-for-tat.

Take yesterday in the sports world. First, Darren Clarke won the British Open golf championship. He's 42 years old, from Northern Ireland, and this was his first major championship.

Where's the karma? Well, start with the fact that he's had a compelling life story, surviving an IRA pub-bombing as a young bartender because he answered a phone call that tipped off the plot. He got everybody out of the pub and 15 minutes later, the bomb detonated. In 2006, weeks before the biennial Ryder Cup matches with the U.S., his wife Heather succumbed to a two-year battle with cancer. Clarke responded by leading the Europeans to a crushing victory over the Americans.

The last two U.S. Open golf champions also hailed from Northern Ireland. The 2010 champion, Graeme McDowell then 30, and the 2011 champion, Rory McIlroy, now 22, each credited Darren Clarke as inspiring them in their early years as amateurs. Yet they won big before he did.

Even though the young McIlroy was the betting favorite to this championship, Clarke became the crowd's sentimental favorite after he shot an opening round 68. He didn't disappoint as he fended off two American challengers on Sunday, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, for the win which makes Northern Ireland the center of championship golf by one measure — three of the last six major championships belong to McDowell, McIlroy, and Clarke.

Tiger who? Clarke captured the karma.

A few hours after Clarke hoisted the claret jug an hour south of London, the Japanese women won soccer's World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany.  They defeated the much-favored U.S. team in a riveting (for soccer) championship match decided by penalty kicks.

The Japanese was something of a Cinderella team and neutral crowd favorite as they were playing for a country still recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Sentimentally, they were adorned with the "team of destiny" by some.

The U.S. women, on the other hand, had escaped with a near-miraculous last-minute victory against Brazil and a hard-fought win over France. Some considered them the "team of destiny."

The match started with the U.S. completely overwhelming the Japanese with numerous scoring chances. But the Americans failed to finish, squandering their initial advantage. After 45 minutes there was no score. Late in regulation time, the American finally scored and it looked like they would undoubtedly claim the Cup. But with just minutes left, an American defensive foul-up in front of their goal allowed the Japanese to score. The match went to overtime, or extra time.

Like the previous 90 minutes, it looked like the extra time might end without any goals scored. But again, the Americans scored during the second half of extra time, but allowed the Japanese to tie the match with a goal in the last minutes. Then the Japanese, who had been clearly outplayed for most of the match, won the penalty kick shootout 3-1.

There is, of course, no way to compare the outcome of a soccer game as 'balance' or karma for an earthquake and tsunami. But looking at just the game itself, a case can be made the U.S. team lost this match as they had won the match against Brazil. And in virtually every major sport there's an adage that if you fail to capitalize on early opportunities, there's a strong chance those failures will come back to haunt you.

That's karma. Fate may choose. Destiny may call. Karma is impartial; it doesn't act, but is revealed.

I'd like to think it's karma that keeps Grantland Rice's aphorism about "how you played the game" still relevant in a whatever-it-takes culture. I'd like to think it's victories like Clarke's and the Japanese women that provide a balance to the excessive winning-is-the-only-thing ethics of steroids, illegal recruiting, corked bats, college football coaches who make more (WAY more) than university presidents, and nationally-televised HIGH SCHOOL sports on ESPN.

I'd like to think that we saw karma in the Green Bay Packers victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers and their sex-crime-plagued quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. I'd like to think karma was in the building when the Dallas Mavericks defeated the self-heralded Big Three of the Miami Heat for the NBA championship.

I'd like to think that. In fact, I think I will. I think karma may indeed be making a comeback. 

And that gives me some cause for hope regarding what might happen in the next 12 days in the matter of Christus St. Vincent Hospital vs. the nurses and technicians union.