Injury Karma

Early last week, on the same day, I had two typical cases come into my St George chiropractic office.  Nothing about either case seemed unusual.  But when one juxtaposes the two cases, one can see that we need some divine Injury Karma, something to smooth out the hills and valleys of fairness a little.

If you are not familiar with karma, I’ll explain with a simple expression “What goes around comes around.”

The first case was a young grandmother about 50 years old.  She had been playing with her grandkids while their mother was at work.  During their ‘play-day’ the grandmother injured a disc in her lower back and now she is really tough shape.  She has pain running down the back of one leg.  She can’t stand up straight.  She has to change positions every few minutes or the pain in her lower back becomes unbearable.  Because of the lower back pain, she can’t sit comfortably anywhere, including on the toilette, so that has created some secondary problems for her.  She is still working part-time, but she had to take a few days off in order to heal correctly.  What caused her injury:  playing with her grandkids.

Building a Treehouse should be injury free.

The second case was a teenage boy who had been using a cell phone while driving on St George blvd.  He took his eyes off the road for a moment and rear-ended another vehicle.  There was not much damage to his truck, but the other car had significant damage.  The boy’s injuries were minor; no neck pain, no headaches.  He was being examined as a matter of course and precaution.  He took ownership of the car-crash.  He told me it was his fault, that he knew better than to use a phone while driving.

When I look at these two cases, I can’t help but think that there ought to be a force in the universe called Injury Karma.  This force would mitigate any injury suffered if it occurred during certain altruistic events.  Here is a short list from the top of my head.

Injury Karma – Free Pass List:

• Taking the neighbor kid fishing when you take your own kids out.  If the kid is from a single-parent family, then your karma points should be doubled.
• Playing with children.
• Playing outside physical games with children should even heal an old injury and count as double karma points.
• Rescuing a cat from a tree.
• Building a play-house for your kids.
• Building a community garden space should count as double karma points.

Distracted Driving should count as double negative injury karma points.

If a person was being totally selfish and inconsiderate when they incur an injury, then the karma should probably make that injury more painful.  The universe can teach them a lesson.  I’m not suggesting that they should have a debilitating disease, or lose a finger or anything.  I just think that if the sting were more poignant, then maybe they might try to straighten up a bit.

Here are my top picks for negative Injury Karma.  If you have any suggestions for negative karma, then leave your comments below.

Injury Karma – Negative List:

• Using any electronic device while driving.
• Unsafe lane-changes while driving.
• Merging into a lane currently occupied by a motorcycle.
• If that motorcycle happens to be a blue 250cc cruiser and the rider has an orange backpack then your negative points are doubled.
• Teasing or bullying.
• Teasing or bullying your younger brother to the point of tears should be double negative points.

I suppose we have a concept in our culture about Injury Karma.  But it only seems to operate in December.  You might know it by it’s other name:  Santa’s Naughty/Nice List.  Only in my version, instead of coal, a person gets an extra measure of hurt– just enough to let them know that the Universe is watching.  So be good for goodness sake.

Dr. Andrew White | St George Chiropractor
Featured image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and David Castillo Dominici

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