I believe in "karma" in the sense that we learn from our actions, eventually :-) I don't think many people deliberately make mistakes or say/do things to hurt others. People handicapped with true antisocial personalities that do ugly things I think of as being sort of like people who suicide or even alzheimer people who burn their houses down because they "forgot" they turned all the stove burners on high or something.

I think I can learn from everyone I come in contact with in reality or read about, etc. No one and nothing is "wasted." There's that "joke" about, if nothing else, serving as a bad example but there's some truth to that; that's why people identify with that.

I love the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, because it shows the impact we can have without even knowing it. I believe my "job" is to become the best Perna I can.

I read a book once that talked about how we're like cells of a body, some of us a freckle or mole near the elbow and others more important-seeming like brain or heart cells perhaps. But all are needed. The mole has to work hard, make sure it doesn't give in to cancer, etc.

I like the second book of Madelaine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time quintet, A Wind in the Door too, http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Door-Made...dp/0312368593/ for its attempt at showing us what our bodies go through on a cellular level to become "us" and make us whole and well.