Now Boarding: The Last Train To Karma

Karma is widely misinterpreted to mean "what goes around, comes around" - a sort of eventual cosmic payback. In fact, karma is a deed or action, either good or not so good, and, in general, is what it is. But, at the least, karma can create either good or bad auras, although we tend to think more about the "getting even" aspects of bad karma.

SiriusXM radio's Dr. Laura Schlesinger is, for example, a big-time believer in accelerating karmic revenge, striking back in the here and now, rather than waiting for the ultimate, but unknown, inevitable. But, in reality, for significant numbers of Buddhists, karma is a momentary thing, without a cause-and-effect relatuonship with future states.

For others, there are karmic views of: 1) receiving either good news or ill fortune - getting what one deserves at some future point; and 2) progression or regression in reincarnation being based on the aggregate effects of individual good or bad deeds. In no case does genuine karma have anything much to do with the Boy george classic, Karma Chameleon.

We see a good bit of the bad karma payback in the ebbing and flowing of power in the supply chain, as shippers and carriers try to take advantage when one or the other is down, and as the formerly downtrodden try to recoup losses when they are in the ascendancy. But, there are hopeful signs as we contemplate entering an Age of Collaboration in supply chain management.

This could be as good a time as any to start building some good karma in our supply chain relationships, whether one subcribes to the "one and done" school of deeds and actions or the longer-term view of aggregating good and/or bad karma.

Hey, what's to lose?