Fault and Responsibility
All the mistakes I have made in my life have not been my fault. Conspiracies of events that I had no control over lead me to each misstep. Only had I been born in a different time, in a different place, to different parents might I have avoided the things I have done that I am not proud of. However, I was born when I was to the parents that I love and therefore I must take responsibility for the mistakes that I have made as well as everything that happens in my life. If I was struck by a drunk driver tomorrow it would not be my fault, but recovering from my injuries would be my responsibility. The drunk driver, much as he would be to blame could and would never take my place in fixing what he has broken. If I knew every element of the drivers story from the time he was born to the moment he struck me I would see that the cascade of events were all but unavoidable. This worldview frees me from the task of assigning blame to the world and lets me focus on taking responsibility for my own direction.
The world we were all born into is a complex and constantly moving place. We are thrown into that mix without so much as a question to whether we are ready for the life we are given. The time, place and parents we find when we arrive have all been determined far in advance of our arrival. How we are received and what lessons we are given vary widely from one person to the next. Is it the fault of Paris Hilton that she is a spoiled and snarky rich kid with no sense of her own potential? Can we fault the racist with the dead-end job for blaming his misery on people he has never met? Neither of these people chose the position they were born to, nor did they choose the teachers that would model for them how life is supposed to be addressed.
This show we call life has been going on long before we arrived and will continue long after we have departed. Human history may seem distant to us in our day to day living but the narrative of the past still color our every thought and idea. Jesus was born 20 centuries ago and there is not a single person alive today that is not influenced by that birth. The same can be said about Muhammad born 6 centuries later or Elvis Presley born 72 years ago. We would all be a different person if any of these figures did not exist. Our choices would have been as different as the world we would have encountered. How can we blame anyone for their conduct of their lives when our personal conduct is so influenced and guided by these characters of history? We can however, still hold faultless people to the consequence of their actions. The drunk driver might not be at fault for the conduct he chooses, but he is still responsible to pay the price for the misdeed.
The reasons we chose one direction in life over another does not absolve the fact that we do make choices and those choices have consequences. The consequences of my actions are my responsibility. Those actions also affect the lives of everyone I have contact with and beyond. My friends and family all live variations of the world they live based on my influence and participation in their lives. This essay is an extension of that influence. If you happen to read it, your life will have been changed, if only in a very small way. Should the next thing you do be to jump off a bridge, you could say it was the fault of this essay. Perhaps some line of text triggered a bridge jumping yearning in you that could not be overcome. Are your actions my fault? Perhaps, along with some sort of psychological disorder, but your wet clothes and precarious position in the water is now your responsibility.
The truth is, the idea that everything we are and choose to be is somehow something else's fault, is a lie. So is the idea that we are solely responsible for the people we have come to be and the lives we have come to live. That being the case, doesn’t it make more sense to embrace everything in our lives as part of our own burden to bear? When the car breaks down or sickness comes we can claim them quickly as part of the life we are responsible for. The world in which we live is too complex to point our fingers accurately at others and the time we have to spend is too short to waste time trying.
The world we were all born into is a complex and constantly moving place. We are thrown into that mix without so much as a question to whether we are ready for the life we are given. The time, place and parents we find when we arrive have all been determined far in advance of our arrival. How we are received and what lessons we are given vary widely from one person to the next. Is it the fault of Paris Hilton that she is a spoiled and snarky rich kid with no sense of her own potential? Can we fault the racist with the dead-end job for blaming his misery on people he has never met? Neither of these people chose the position they were born to, nor did they choose the teachers that would model for them how life is supposed to be addressed.
This show we call life has been going on long before we arrived and will continue long after we have departed. Human history may seem distant to us in our day to day living but the narrative of the past still color our every thought and idea. Jesus was born 20 centuries ago and there is not a single person alive today that is not influenced by that birth. The same can be said about Muhammad born 6 centuries later or Elvis Presley born 72 years ago. We would all be a different person if any of these figures did not exist. Our choices would have been as different as the world we would have encountered. How can we blame anyone for their conduct of their lives when our personal conduct is so influenced and guided by these characters of history? We can however, still hold faultless people to the consequence of their actions. The drunk driver might not be at fault for the conduct he chooses, but he is still responsible to pay the price for the misdeed.
The reasons we chose one direction in life over another does not absolve the fact that we do make choices and those choices have consequences. The consequences of my actions are my responsibility. Those actions also affect the lives of everyone I have contact with and beyond. My friends and family all live variations of the world they live based on my influence and participation in their lives. This essay is an extension of that influence. If you happen to read it, your life will have been changed, if only in a very small way. Should the next thing you do be to jump off a bridge, you could say it was the fault of this essay. Perhaps some line of text triggered a bridge jumping yearning in you that could not be overcome. Are your actions my fault? Perhaps, along with some sort of psychological disorder, but your wet clothes and precarious position in the water is now your responsibility.
The truth is, the idea that everything we are and choose to be is somehow something else's fault, is a lie. So is the idea that we are solely responsible for the people we have come to be and the lives we have come to live. That being the case, doesn’t it make more sense to embrace everything in our lives as part of our own burden to bear? When the car breaks down or sickness comes we can claim them quickly as part of the life we are responsible for. The world in which we live is too complex to point our fingers accurately at others and the time we have to spend is too short to waste time trying.
posted by kamuizot at 6:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home