One of my neighbors at No. 10 – I don’t want to use her real name so we’ll call her Carmen for the purposes of this post – had an office on the 28th floor of the SunTrust (formerly NBC) building. Her window faced north; therefore, she had a view of No. 10’s rooftop.
One day at work, Carmen looked out the window and saw a cute girl in a bikini sunbathing on the rooftop of No. 10.
She could have taken out a camera with a high-powered zoom lens and snapped some pictures, had them developed and slid them under the door of my apartment. But did she? No.
She could have called my cell phone and suggested I take a long lunch break, come home and go up to the roof. But did she? No.
She could have taken her lunch break and walked over to No. 10. She could have ridden the elevator up to the roof, taken some pictures of bikini girl using her cell phone’s digicam, and then used the Send To –> Paul option. But did she? No.
She could have called me, and said, “Paul, why don’t you come downtown and meet me for lunch? Come up to my office – the view is spectacular today, and I have high-powered binoculars for you to use.” But did she? Again, no.
Carmen did none of these things.
A couple of weeks later, she got reassigned to her law firm’s East Memphis office. So, instead of having a half-block walk as a commute to work, she now has to get up 30 minutes earlier, get in her car, fight rush-hour traffic, and stop-and-go her way to East Memphis.
I think this is karma. She failed to properly utilize her resources when she lived downtown, and therefore the universe took her resources away.
Perhaps one day Carmen will have another chance to work at the downtown office. Hopefully if she does, she will have learned her lesson how to be a good downtowner and good neighbor.