Schadenfreude

Adam and I were chatting this afternoon about karma in the context of romantic entanglements - that is, having had a strong connection with someone, confronting them with your feelings only to have them deny it... and once you've finally moved forward, having them come back around. I'm not one to go into the details of someone else's story - that's not my place. Suffice it to say, Adam had mentioned that he was enjoying seeing this person be the one twisting in the wind for a change.

That led us to the discussion of schadenfreude. Just in case you hadn't heard the term, its a German word that roughly translates to taking pleasure in others' misfortune. My take on it was that you need to pretty careful when you venture into the realm of schadenfreude because you're asking for a karmic slap upside the head. Tell the Universe that you're enjoy the bad thing in someone else's life and you're basically inviting bad things into your life.

Adam disagreed. Specifically, he countered with seeing someone in the ritzy Scottsdale Fashion Square mall vomiting in the food court and having the schadenfreude to imaginewatch the prissy Scottsdale teen queens having to trudge through it. I had to admit that that scenario is pretty freaking funny. In that, I figure that any sort of schadenfreude related karmic slap must have a vomit exception because, let's face it, when vomit happens to someone else, it is undeniably funny... and I know the Universe has to have a sense of humor about those types of things... if I look at some of the romantic twists I've gone through, I have experiencial proof that the Universe has a very twisted sense of humor.

Comments anyone?