“Poetic justice!” we say, when we feel a certain “punishment” exactly meets the “crime.” A bad guy in a movie ends up falling into the trap he set for someone else.  A thief ends up losing everything. A murderer who prepares a poison ends up drinking it himself. While these make for great plots in fiction, they seldom apply to real life. Or do they?

How about the overprotective mother who in her smothering loses the very daughter she seeks to shield?

Or what about the wealthy woman who values accumulating money over building relationships, and who later is surrounded only by her jewels as she battles cancer alone.

Or the successful businessman who devotes all his time and energy to his career in order to make a good life for his family only to lose them all in the process as they go on …