Maybe it’s because I was raised as a buddhist or maybe it’s just a sensibility that my mother has ingrained in me, but I believe that one must take ownership of every action one takes. I was raised to always be conscious of how my actions will affect the world around me and that it’s my responsibility to the universe to take the good path when given a choice. And there’s always a choice.
Few things bother or disappoint me more than when people blame their action or inaction on uncontrollable forces in the world. Mistakes happen and nobody is perfect, especially me. But there’s always a choice, even if it’s a difficult choice between bad or worse. You must own up to your failures and choose the good path toward fixing the things you damage. Else, you waste your limited time alive on escapism, distractions, regrets.
There was a story on NPR this morning about modern yoga losing its Hindu origins. Although the yoga comparison is a bit esoteric, one line from the story resonated, “every thought, every action has a ramification … there is this moral responsibility to own what you do.”