Spring Cleaning

Before you proceed, let me warn you; this is not an anti-Bush statement today. Although I love to spread hatred and abhorrence for this sorry excuse for a Human Being (Human! That's a joke in itself!) and his actions, the cartoon directly relates to the question someone close to me wants to explore.

No, where I'm going today is the actions of others. The detritus of emotional baggage that they leave in their wake and, last but not least whether they have a modicum of emotional intelligence to realise what they have done or if they truly are senseless and selfish enough to believe that their actions are (a) inconsequential, or (b) justified.

I suppose there are those people who are so self absorbed that they fail to be aware of what goes on around them unless it has a direct personal effect. We've all met these kind of people. The ones who breeze effortlessly through life, appear to have no cares in the world and no cares for others to boot.

But then there is a second type. Those who steam-roller through life leaving as much destruction and harm behind them as possible. God only knows what they've experienced somewhere in their personal history in order for them to become so bitter and so twisted that the only idea of happiness they know is to have everyone around them feeling as dejected, hateful and cynical as they are.

So my question today, or rather what I'd like to ponder, is Ownership.

We should all take responsibility for our actions, and within that, ownership of anything we do that may directly affect another person or persons. If you've made someone feel happy, no matter for how short a period, then be proud. But if we've directly or indirectly hurt a person, then take ownership and deal with it. Start with an apology, work out where you went wrong and why, then fix it. And try to make sure you don't trip up on the same thing again. The true apology comes when the person who was hurt is able to see that you're making the effort to not repeat offend.

But then there is a question we need to ask ourselves when we're faced with the people who actually choose to hurt others. Are they responsible for their own actions? If no one has stopped them from behaving in such ways or challenged their behaviour, then just who is responsible or who should take ownership? Is it the aggressor, who knows no different? Or is it the victim, who recongnises the problem but never tackles or challenges these actions and therefore allows them to persist?

The question is of course subjective. We can only see into and question ourselves, assumptions are after all, an emotional minefield. It's pointless trying to work out what's going on with someone else unless you really take time to know them, and then you could still be a million miles off mark. But when we're faced with another persons actions, for whatever reason, sometimes it's best to walk away and try hard to not be affected by it.

So when you're doing the Spring cleaning this year, why not just throw out this particular piece of emotional trash too.

Hmm! Maybe Dubya should read this after all!