Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Who Shot John?

Who Shot John?

Yesterday I went to the flying field and crashed my trainer. In one sense it was my fault (pilot error) and in another it wasn’t. The error was that something came loose (probably the wing halves separated) but it was hard to tell for sure. The good news was it was not an overt mistake I made while engaged in the flying process.

This raises an interesting point on how people take (or avoid taking) responsibility. I used to visit a bar here in Central Wisconsin and never ever did I hear, in the course of listening to peoples laments, any personal responsibility. It was always their wife’s fault, the church’s fault, the boss’s fault, or the fault or somebody else, conspiring to turn their lives into "rat poop." Never once did I hear someone say that the reason their life was so screwed up was because they caused it… as a consequence of their behaviors.

There is a popular saying going about… “SHIT HAPPENS.” Well in Wisconsin it doesn’t just happen…. Someone else is always behind it and that someone is never “YOU!” Don’t get me wrong…. I don’t go smirking about taking pleasure from this foible of human nature. As a matter of fact I often am on the verge of taking recourse of it, when I realize what an absurd excuse I’m about to make to cast my own actions and behaviors in the best possible light.

For example my caveat regarding the plane crash is a classic example. I built the airplane model and if it came apart in the air, whose fault is that? DUH!

Now there are certainly circumstances that happen that are natural occurrences from which we might seek to absolve ourselves. For example, a hurricane or a falling bolder but even in such cases, is it not our inaction or inappropriate responses that are often to blame?

There is another aspect to this propensity human beings have to cry out…. “It wasn’t my fault!” This is the desire to confess blame when nobody is requiring them to “fess up.” Often in the bar I encountered those so filled with guilt that they felt compelled to unburden themselves on others. My wife Linda must look like a walking confessional because people come up to her (not just acquaintances) and often start presenting their case (out of the blue) about some bad thing they did or experience they had. She has that sympathetic look and others latch onto it. Maybe the reason many look so glum or wear that sever demeanor is to avoid being on the receiving end of someone else’s guilt.

So it seems on the one hand we feel the need to confess our guilt but on the other are loath not take personal responsibility. Is that not a contradiction in our humanity? Religions capitalize on this aspect of human nature.