MYSTERY OF THE TEXAS TWOSTEP

CHAPTER SIXTY:

KARMA

Written by Rick Archer 

It was Thursday, January 10th.  This was the night when Hank and Henrietta had squared off to angrily debate the future path of Western dancing.  After class, several people stuck around to ask questions.  Since I did not have an 8 pm class, I was free to help the students with their footwork.

When I was done, I assumed I was the only person left at the studio, but I was wrong.  Lance Stevens was conducting a late-night private lesson on the Main Floor.  I had no choice but to walk past him on my way to the front door.  I could not but notice Stevens glowering at me.  Hate was written all over his face.

The oddest feeling came over me.  My situation with Lance Stevens was the strangest, most ironic turn of events I could possibly imagine.  My insight was triggered by the angry and quite bewildered look on his face.  I began to see things from his point of view.  Stevens was struggling mightily to comprehend the bizarre Flip-Flop in our fortunes.  I had 200 Western students, he had 50 Ballroom students.

Stevens was not upset about money.  My lucrative rent checks would continue to pad his healthy bank account (thanks in large part to me).  No, what he was upset about was his pride. 

Keep in mind that Lance Stevens was the recipient of countless teaching awards and contest victories.  In his eyes, Stevens was the Master while I did not deserve to call myself a dance teacher.  Ever since he first laid eyes on me, Stevens held a very low opinion of my ability.  It was about this time two years ago that Stevens demanded I take a private lesson from him to upgrade my dance skills.  Stevens decided if I was going to work for him, I needed to learn proper Latin hip motion.  When he ordered me to demonstrate my hip motion, I was very awkward.  What went wrong?  I could move my hips just fine when I wasn't thinking about it.  However Stevens made me so self-conscious I became spastic.  Seeing me stumble across the floor trying to wiggle my hips, Stevens wondered why he bothered to hire me in the first place.  

Stevens criticized me in a sharp tone. 

"What is wrong with you, Archer?  You can't even move your hips right!  How do you ever expect to be a professional dance teacher when you can't master something as simple as Latin hip motion?  You're supposed to be a Disco teacher but you can't even dance."

Having been told by my boss that I was a disgrace to the profession, I completely folded.  For the next ten minutes, I tried to move my hips correctly as he demanded, but nothing worked right.  Stevens was so disgusted he ended the lesson at the halfway mark.  He never offered to help me again.  Obviously I was not worth his time. 

This was the start of Stevens' ongoing disdain.  Complaining to anyone willing to listen, he referred to me as "The Dance Teacher who couldn't Dance".  When my friend Dorothy reported his insult to me, I was irate.  I could move my hips just fine when Stevens wasn't barking at me.   But Stevens refused to cut me any slack.  He decided once and for all that I lacked the talent to go anywhere in the dance business.  In his opinion, I was unfit to be a professional with the exception of this abomination known as 'Disco Dancing'.  He would keep me around to save him the trouble of teaching Disco himself.  Otherwise he dismissed me as an unwelcome nuisance.  From that point on I more or less ceased to exist in his eyes unless he wanted someone to boss around.

I admit my dancing was sub-par at the start.  However Stevens refused to see that my dancing continued to improve over time.  Strangely enough, there was a Silver Lining to his negativity.  It is my theory that Stevens was so blinded by his low opinion that he underestimated my potential.  In particular, Stevens was guilty of extremely poor judgment when he gave me permission to rent rooms to teach classes of my own.  I believe Stevens said okay because I was so mediocre I could never be a threat.  Nevertheless, Stevens should have had the sense to ask a few questions.  Nope.  He said yes, then walked away.  The less time spent near me, the better.

I have a good idea why he gave me permission.  There was a part-time instructor named Alicia who had a standing private lesson with three couples.  Each week Alicia rented a small sideroom large enough her purposes.  I can only assume that Stevens thought I was talking about something similar to Alicia when he agreed to rent rooms to me.  He thought I wanted a room for 6 or 7 students.  No, I wanted a room for 60 to 70.  Alicia wanted a room once a week.  I wanted a room 15-20 times a week. 

Okay, anybody can make a mistake.  However, here is the contradiction.  Our conversation took place in July 1978.  It was now January 1980.  Over the past year and a half, Stevens had ample opportunity to see the error of his ways.  But he did nothing about it! 

I analyzed the situation as best I could.  Unfortunately I could not imagine a single Realistic reason why Stevens would continue to let me take advantage of this ridiculously one-sided deal.  As Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes once said, once you have eliminated all the logical explanations, begin to consider the bizarre possibilities.  And what did I conclude?

This was such a colossal error I was convinced Cosmic Blindness had to have been involved. 

Suspicious

KARMIC RELATIONSHIP

So where am I going with my latest journey into the World of Mysticism? 

I believed the best explanation for Stevens' Reversal of Fortune story was Fate and Karma. 

Fate is defined as a predetermined, unchangeable future.  Karma is the law of cause and effect whereby one's actions influence their future outcomes.  Fate emphasizes that certain events are unavoidable, while Karma operates on the principle that positive actions lead to positive results and negative actions to negative ones. 

Theoretically Fate and Karma are not the same thing, but I think they go hand in hand.  To me, the law of Karma says a person's actions dictate a specific outcome sometime in the future.  Let's say your father warns that you will be grounded if you are late.  You are late, so now you get grounded.  To me, a Karmic outcome is a person's Fate.  Karma leads to Fate.

But why split hairs?  Who am I to lecture on metaphysical details?  I am not a guru, I am a Seeker.  So take everything I say as my opinion only.  Nothing I say is Fact, but rather speculation and theory.  Call it food for thought. 

I have made it clear that I firmly believe in Fate.  One of my reasons involved the curious dynamics of the Rent incident. 

Lance Stevens was so blind that he failed to realize he had given me permission to build my own program under the roof of his studio.  That was bad enough, but he had more than enough time to clear his mind once he saw what I was up to.  What could explain his failure to renegotiate?  Was Lance Stevens really that stupid?  Or did Fate Blind his eyes?  It was almost like Stevens willingly allowed me to walk on him.

J.K. Rowling once said, "Talent and Intelligence will not inoculate anyone against the Caprice of the Fates." 

Where have we heard this before?  Clay Felker.  During his Darkest Day, Clay Felker was oblivious to the motives of Rupert Murdoch and lost his magazine as consequence.  Now during Felker's Brightest Day, his uncanny powers have been restored.  He has singlehandedly created a phenomenon that affects every corner of the United States.  When you're hot, you're hot.

And when you're not, you're not.  Just look at Lance Stevens, the arrogant Master.  His walls were lined with certificates announcing teaching awards and victories won during his Brightest Day.  And yet here in his Darkest Day, Stevens has allowed a man far less talented to surpass him.  

Ms. Rowling also said "that humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them." 

Why would anyone allow an employee to build an independent program under the same roof?  Nobody is that stupid, not even Lance Stevens.  To be fair, Stevens was college-educated.  He built his studio without help from anyone.  But what if this was his Darkest Day?  If so, then I postulate that Fate imposed Blindness on him the same way it once affected Clay Felker. 

The Western Era has just brought a sudden influx of new students to me.  Never before had the one-sided ramifications of the deal he made 18 months ago been more apparent.  Due to a lack of foresight, Stevens had unwittingly allowed me to become a formidable business rival right inside his own walls.  So what should he do about me?  Stevens had a real problem on his hands.  If he fired me, no doubt every one of my students would walk out the door.  They had absolutely no loyalty to him.  It said 'Stevens of Hollywood' on the door, but the checks were made out to Rick Archer. 

Based on the hostile look Stevens gave me, obviously he was well aware that things were not right.  As each western student strolled in, I was making money hand over fist.  Meanwhile Stevens was paying rent of his own, plus cleaning fees, floor maintenance, accident insurance, water bills, phone bills, electricity, and whatever else.  Stevens paid all the overhead while I paid him a pittance at 15 bucks an hour.  It was very close to hitching a free ride.  I almost felt sorry for him... almost.

Do you believe in Karma?  The law of Karma says whatever you do is bound to come back to you.  At the start of our relationship, I had been under the thumb of Lance Stevens.  The man worked me to death, paid me next to nothing and showed zero gratitude for the Disco fortune I handed him.  Now look what happened.  Stevens was forced to bear the humiliation of watching me make all this money in return for peanuts in rent.  Even worse, it was his own fault!!  Now it was Stevens' turn to feel exploited.  He had no business giving me permission to build a program under his roof.  That was weird enough.  But why didn't he do something about it?  That was even weirder.  To me this eerie reversal of fortune had Karma written all over it. 

Stevens was getting royally burned by Country-Western.  It blew his mind to discover Western dancing turned out to be lucrative after all.  How could he have been so blind?  But the worst part had to be watching a clod like me ride high on the comeback trail.  In December Stevens had observed my number of students reduced to a trickle due to the Death of Disco.  He gleefully expected me to quit in January only to see 200 students stream through his doors.  Every night of the week, 40 to 60 cheerful new students walked in.  Like a vampire, I had mysteriously risen from the Land of the Undead. 

By allowing me to teach classes for myself under his roof, my one-time boss had permitted something akin to a malignant tumor to grow unchecked under his nose.  Not only did I no longer work for him, my program was dramatically larger.  Okay, Stevens has finally figured out he had made a bad deal, so why not do something about it?  There was no lease, no legally binding reason to maintain the unpleasant status quo.  And yet Stevens inexplicably remained too blind to correct his error.  What was wrong with this man?  Does Stevens not know the meaning of the word 'Renegotiate'?  Stevens was a college graduate, but you could have fooled me. 

Suspicious

Lucky Break

Serious

Lucky Break
Cosmic Blindness

Suspicious

Lucky Break

Suspicious

Lucky Break

As the 1980 tidal wave of Country-Western students entered the studio, what strange thoughts do you suppose passed through Stevens' mind?  I imagine my unexpected comeback was a head-scratching mystery to Lance Stevens.  Seriously, considering how inept Stevens believed me to be, he had to wonder how a guy with limited dance talent managed to pull this off. 

While Lance Stevens was busy trying to solve the mystery of my success, I was doing the same thing.  How much Good Luck can a man receive before he becomes suspicious?  Here at the dawn of the Country-Western Era, I was convinced my success was way beyond my talent and ability.  It seemed like no matter how hard my ignorance and bad attitude caused me to mess things up, my good luck rescued me time and again. 

For sake of argument, let's assume I am right that Fate placed me in this enviable position for a purpose.  To me, this continuous series of lucky breaks defied any sort of Realistic explanation.  I did not understand 'why', but the omens were unavoidable.  Please forgive if I assume too much, but I decided I must be living a charmed life.  If so, surely God had a reason to hand me these lucky breaks.  In that case, I accepted responsibility to do the best I could. Actually, I could go one step further than that.  Believing this was something I was meant to do, I wanted to teach dancing for the rest of my life.

My relationship with Stevens lasted three years.  During this time, I identified 40 mysterious incidents that struck me as well beyond the ordinary.  Stevens was witness to many of these incidents.  Watching me survive one jam after another by the skin of my teeth, do you suppose the explanation of a Charmed Life ever crossed Stevens' mind?  Probably not. 

Stevens was not an open-minded man, definitely not prone to entertain mystical possibilities.  More likely, he wrote off all these lucky breaks to some sort of Vegas hot streak.  Okay, I can write anything off as a fluke.  But THREE YEARS?  How many hot streaks last three years?  How can Stevens dismiss three years of watching a disgrace rise to the top of his profession without at least a twinge of Twilight Zone terror?  

"How does the least talented dance instructor I have ever met continue to succeed beyond his wildest imagination?" 

The poor man must have been perplexed.  Stevens was very bitter as well.  No one likes to get beat by an underdog.  

So now my thoughts returned to Karma.  I am convinced that Stevens and I were engaged in a Karmic Relationship.  Typically the purpose of a Karmic relationship is to teach an important lesson among other things. 

For example, Victoria was a Mentor sent to teach me how to run a dance studio.  Joanne was a Mentor sent to introduce me to Western dancing.  Glen was a Mentor sent to train me to be a dance professional. 

What about Lance Stevens?  Although I did learn things from him, I would hardly call him my Mentor.  On the other hand, maybe Stevens was not sent to teach me a lesson, but rather I was sent to teach him one.

Actually I think I was sent to serve two purposes.  I helped Stevens make a fortune during the first year of the Disco Era.  This was the most money Stevens ever made in his career, so we can assume I served him well during his Brightest Day.  But what about his Darkest Day?

Stevens was a gifted man who deserved his many accolades.  He had every right to feel superior.  Unfortunately, he had grown arrogant during his Brightest Day.  Now it was time for his Darkest Day.  Imagine how humiliating it was for Stevens to be upstaged by a inexperienced, clueless, untalented amateur.  I believe that was the role I was meant to play.  Could anyone have ever imagined a stranger Reversal of Fortune? 

Mind you, I say none of this to brag.  In no way do I consider myself superior as an instructor to Stevens (although I hope he learned to treat his students with more respect).  I never plotted against Stevens or tried to outdo him.  In fact, I took very little pleasure in doing this to him.  On the days when Stevens was not being a jerk, I actually felt sorry for him.  It was a cruel Fate to be upstaged by a nobody in his own studio.