Vašek and Good Karma

Vašek is this awesome Czech kid who is going to London on Saturday to find work and learn English. Here’s the story:

Jono met Vašek in Austria where Jono was on a snowboarding holiday and Vašek was waiting tables. They chatted together for maybe a total of 20 minutes during the course of one lunch and then agreed to meet in Prague. So 6 weeks later Jono and I went out with Vašek on a Monday night and we drank and chatted together until 3 or 4 in the morning. The conversation was excellent: 3 people, 3 languages. Jono and Vašek spoke German together, Vašek and I spoke Czech, and Jono and I spoke English.

Jono is maternal in his own weird way. When Vašek said he was planning to go to London to learn English, Jono nearly adopted him on the spot. So last night I met Vašek to talk about London, brief him on how to get from the airport to Jono, confirm that he had at least some English money, etc.

At one point, Vašek had said that he was not going to stay with Jono after all, that he didn’t want to trouble him, and that he had arranged some accommodation elsewhere. I was imagining some grim foreign workers’ housing, and quickly talked him out of it. I managed to convince Vašek pretty easily, because it was true, that Jono would be horribly disappointed if he were robbed of the chance to look after him. Vašek looked at my London A-Z (street atlas) and said, “I’ll need to get one of those.” I said, “Jono already has one for you.” Then he talked about a pocket Czech-English dictionary. I said, “Don’t buy one, I’ve got one in my box that’s under Jono’s bed - just take that.” Then I gave him my A-Z just so he will be able to follow where he is on the tube until he meets Jono at South Kensington.

Then Vašek started talking about what a serendipitous accident it had been, meeting Jono in an Austrian ski resort, and that Jono had plans to be in Prague 6 weeks later, and then we managed to meet and now he is going to be taken care of in London. That was the beginning of a very long discussion about karma and people who do things for other people, and that you never really have to return favours directly because you always end up doing something nice for someone else. It’s all about inviting someone you hardly know to stay with you, or taking a weird limey girl from Moscow to a party with you in Prague only because she is a friend of a friend, or sending e-mails advising a total stranger who is going to be visiting the city you live in only because she happened to talk to your big sister’s mother-in-law in a yarn shop in bloody Buffalo, New York. Use whatever cliché you like: “what goes around comes around” or “pay it forward” or whatever. Vašek and I discussed the positive energy that you actually feel amongst people who participate.