I started watching the show "My name is Earl" (2005) because an older friend said I can learn from the main character. The eponymous Earl is an uneducated petty thief on a path of making amends for his past "evil", or rather just disagreeable, deeds. He is nothing like the academic suburban burnout that I consider myself to be.

Yet Earl's adventures got me hooked right from the first episode. Earl isn't smart, but he knows he has to get honest. Getting hit by a car immediately after finding out he won the lottery, Earl figures life is punishing him for all his misdeeds. He commits to, thus, confess and make amends with all the people and places he has wronged over the years.

About 15 minutes into the show, it is well established that Earl is not the smartest tool in the shed. Somehow the moment he gets honest, however, his thoughts seem different, more profound. "I gotta change or life is going to kill me". The earnestness in that statement caught me off guard.

I was not able to be judgemental, or to say "Wow, this guy has really changed!". Instead, what came out of me was: he is absolutely right. Life does hit back. And if I have been in denial about how much good I have or have not done, when the payback comes, I might be caught with my pants down. Social status be damned, if I have been on the wrong path, I have it coming as much as drunk-in-an-alley-at-9-am Earl.

Of course, this is just a comedy show, and life is a million times more nuanced and complex. However, it is still immensely refreshing to be brought down to Earl's level of truthfulness, to believe that it is Karma that runs things, not I. Note: I googled the words "immensely" and "truthfulness", please tell me if I used them in a natural way or not.