Recently I learned that the first Friday the 13th of each year is officially “Blame Somebody Else Day.” This year it came quite early – the 2nd week of January. I’m not sure why the connection is made between Friday the 13th and blaming others, but I’m fairly confident some people thought that every day was BSED.
While I know some would like us to believe that we can never really blame others because we are always responsible for our responses and emotions, I would take a somewhat amended view. I do believe we are responsible for our responses and often for our emotions, but am persuaded that some emotional responses are close to being hard-wired and instinctual. But that leaves a lot of room for recognition of our responsibility during our “Take Responsibility Lifetime.”
I’m hoping BSED fails to catch on, although as I noted it may not really matter since some people live as though it is BSED perpetually.
Let’s teach our kids to take responsibility, to exercise control where possible (i.e., self-control), and to exert influence to achieve right results in the world around them. What they don’t need is another excuse to blame somebody else!
