Earl's version of karma looks back, and it seems like before he can move forward with his life, Earl feels the need to make up for his past.

 

Look here:

 

 

Zacchaeus was kind of like Earl, thinking that he had to do something to make up for something else he'd done in the past. But notice that Jesus told him, "Today salvation has come to this house." - Jesus didn't tell him that he had to wait til he'd done everything on his list, and He also didn't tell him not to worry about it.

 

Earl's Second Lesson - Making up for things is not always what you expect.

 

Earl thinks that getting Kenny a woman will make up for all the years of humiliation he'd caused. But it doesn't turn out that way.

 

 

It wasn't what Earl expected. Not just what he had to do, something he would not normally have ever even thought of, but the effect that it had on him personally. Earl's compassion affected Earl. I think that Earl entered into it expecting that karma may have been just another con, and expecting a big payoff; what he found was his own redemption.

 

Earl: Never underestimate the power of confidence...And never underestimate 15 beers, a little enightenment, and the power of Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock.

 

 

 

 

 

Donny finds Jesus and gets "all churched up" in prison. This makes things much easier for Earl because, even though Donny is very obviously still crazy and struggles with his temper, he's able to forgive Earl and tells him to cross him off his list. There's an unexpected result, though - Donny's mom was hurt by Donny's going to prison, and insists that Earl give him back the two years she missed. In a karmic twist, Donny's mom is played by one of the incarnations of God on Joan of Arcadia

 

So to give her back the two years, Earl helps her quit smoking by kidnapping her and tying her up so she can't smoke.

 

 

Earl's Fourth Lesson: Sometimes our actions have unexpected, and unforseen, consequences.

It was easy for Earl to cross Donny off his list, especially when things turned out ok for him and forgiveness was so easy. But to give Donny's mom back the two years, Earl had to get a little creative.

 

 

 

 

 

There's a pretty intricate plot here involving Earl's car, his lottery winnings, Randy going back to high school and Kenny James from  the first episode. All the stories cross and overlap, and more and more you start to see how the good that Earl does comes back to him like ripples in a pond, the same way that Joy's concern with herself comes back to haunt her

 

Earl's Fifth Lesson - People make their own karma; it's not something that just happens to you

 

 

 

 

Catalina tells Earl to be a bad boyfriend so that Natalie will break up with him. She tells him this while she is rocking this little orange bikini.

 

Earl: By being honest with Natalie, I made her mad. That anger gave her the idea to fake her death, and by doing that she finally got to leave a relationship with the power that Catalina said she needed. Natalie had finally stood up for herself, and I admired her for that.

 

 

Earl wants to tell Natalie that he faked his own death to get away from Natalie, but Catalina says this is insensitive, and by trying to spare her feelings, Earl winds up in a horrible relationship with her all over again. Turns out, being honest was more important than sparing Natalie's feelings, but Earl had to examine his motives.

 

 

To make up for making fun of people's accents, Earl teaches English as a second language

 

Earl's Lesson #7: Don't be ashamed. I can quote bible verses about this, but mostly they're about not being ashamed of the Gospel, and Jesus. Here, Ralph Mariano returns from prison, and Earl doesn't want to tell him about his list because Earl's the one who taught Ralph how to be a criminal. And while I value the lesson about not being ashamed, it can sometimes be a pain in the ass to explain things to people who really don't care anyway

 

 

 

Joy mentions Club Chubby for the first time

 

Earl's Lesson #8: "You've got to give karma time." Despite what John Lennon said, there is no instant karma. Karma, like miracles, works mostly in hindsight.

 

Earl calls to Karma, and his ESL class comes in to untie him and Randy. Randy calls them "Karma's army, made up of people from all the lands in all the world".

 

This is how Earl sometimes seems to treat karma as if it was some kind of God to be reasoned with, Something that requires things of you and rewards you for your good deeds, and not just a principle.

 

I guess if Earl went around talking about God all the time, folks would just call this a religious show. A lot of fundies probably see this as part of a conspiracy, how "you can't even talk about God on TV" but to me it just seems like a way to introduce spiritual ideas to folks who might not otherwise even listen. People don't always want to hear about God because it may seem like people are trying to preach to or convert them. The reason for that is, Christians are always preaching to and trying to convert people.

 

But Earl is the one who taught the class, and that's why all those people came over, and that's how he got away and stopped Ralph from stealing all his money. It wasn't a lightning strike or a miracle. It was Earl, doing what he thinks is right, making his own karma.

 

 

Earl: Once I start doing something on my list, I become obsessed with it until I can cross it off

 

Lesson: Use your gifts, or Follow your dream, one or the otheer. This is not really a lesson  that Earl learns, but one that he teaches. Because Candy has "the gift" of throwing knives but she doesn't want to be a beauty queen, she wants to be a doctor.

 

 

Candy: Won't it hurt if I throw a knife in your leg?
Earl: Don't worry about it. I've been stabbed by plenty of girls. Only really hurts when you twist it, pull it out, and stick it back in.

 

Earl: It doesn't matter if Joy knows I can cross her off my list or not. All that matters is that I know I can.

 

Earl thinks he's there to replace Joy's "fancy figurine" that he blew up with firecrackers. What he's really doing is helping Joy win back the dignity that she'd lost over the years. He winds up helping Candy as well, and in the end he realizes that it doesn't matter what Joy thinks he did, or why....it only matters what Earl himself thinks.

 

When talking about enlightenment, or Nirvana, a Buddhist will tell you that it's not something that can be explained. You can't convey the depth of meaning with language. It's something that has to be experienced, on a personal level. This is where I think a lot of fundamentalists go wrong, by thinking that "salvation" is something you can measure and judge, that you can tell who's "right with God" and who isn't, as if it was an on-off switch. Here, I think Earl's got it all over that way of thinking, and his redemption comes in a personal experience that he doesn't have to explain to anyone else.