It's not MY fault...

I have often watched and wondered as people use anything and everything to get out of an uncomfortable situation. It’s an ageless problem. When we’re kids, when our mothers catch us doing something wrong, our instant response is to tell her something that one of our sisters has done in hopes that it will be bad enough to make our offense seem much smaller. When we are teenagers, the words “she got me in trouble for…” come up again and again. I remember getting pulled over one time for speeding and being very angry at the cop who pulled me over. A wiser lady asked me if I was mad at the cop, mad at myself for speeding, or mad that I had gotten caught. Um…interesting…BUT…that cop didn’t need to be sitting there that day while I drove quickly by…Of course it was his job. “He got me in trouble!”


It never ends. People need to have someone to blame their actions on. Have you ever talked to a guy who talks about “his crazy ex wife?” I’ve actually caught myself walking away thinking, “Poor guy. His wife was crazy!”…I have a feeling that she wasn’t all that crazy. Don’t get me wrong…I have met “crazy” in my day. In fact, I believe it’s very possible that that same guy drove his wife to “act crazy.” He may have just left some of the story out- he may have left her alone with his children while he stepped out night after night into a bar and hooked up with young girls. Perhaps he told her that she wasn’t good enough for him because he had a “high pressure” job and “guys like him usually have hotter wives.”…Maybe he walked out one day for good and she called a few too many times to ask him how he could do that to her and their children?? He can blame the end of his relationship on the fact that she was crazy all he wants to but the fact remains that if everyone you meet is “crazy”, you might want to take a look in the mirror to find out what’s making them that way.

So why are humans so afraid to take responsibility for their actions? If we speed, it might be our fault that we got a speeding ticket. If we cheat, it might be our fault when the person we have cheated on throws a rock through our window. What is so scary about admitting that we did something that we aren’t proud of? Do we need to fluff up our feathers and walk around telling our life stories with twisted details in order to feel good about ourselves? I knew a guy who used to tell so many stories about his life that when someone would ask him a question regarding his personal life, he would pick up his drink and sip it slowly while he scanned his “lie rolodex” in his mind. It was obvious to me that he was getting his story straight in order for it to match previous stories that he had told the specific person. He was a VERY smart man so he did this quite well. I had to wonder how a less educated man would pull it off though. Of course a less educated man probably wasn’t trying it on overly educated women so there are probably different degrees of the “formulate your lie, slow water sip.” All in all- it’s very hard to maintain an alter ego that is so different from the real you. So much work goes into creating and maintaining each story that I can’t imagine that it doesn’t become overwhelming once in awhile. I wonder whose fault it would be when he screws up his story and gets caught in a lie?...I’m sure it will be the “crazy” girl who questions the validity of the story who will eventually “get him in trouble!”