The challenge of living responsibly
Published Monday October 6th, 2008
What will be your legacy?
Perhaps the best legacy we can have is for our loved ones to say we left this world a better place than we found it.
Oh, but how to accomplish such a task.
It begins with personal responsibility, something in short supply these days.
Taking responsibility for one's actions is, arguably, the single best character trait to have.
Look at all its qualities: it declines to blame someone else for our misdeeds, it keeps us humble, it won't allow us to lie to ourselves and it makes sure we always think of others as at least as important as ourselves.
Taking responsibility means doing something as simple, free and quick as picking up our dog droppings, which is so infuriating and potentially dangerous, it has made the news repeatedly in the last month here in Fredericton.
Taking responsibility means we don't drive after drinking alcohol, we don't buy things we can't afford, and we pay our bills.
Personal responsibility has a huge impact right in our homes when we behave as loving, mature parents and role models to our children, rather than the source of their past, current and future problems.
It also means taking the Earth's problems seriously, and doing all we can to insure our impact on her is minimal. Personal responsibility does not allow for laziness or procrastination in this or any issue. It makes some pretty big demands on us, with the best of intentions.
Taking responsibility for our actions means we don't blame our problems and hang ups on a lack of money or time, stress, our boss, our kids, our parents, our job, or a hundred other factors.
It means doing the best job we can despite the roadblocks we must negotiate.
There is no perfection, but there is the dogged pursuit of improvement.
And when we aim to improve ourselves, then we aren't part of the poop and scoop problem, the crime problem, the credit problem, the impaired driving problem, the environmental problem, or any other social issue that faces our city and our society today.
But it doesn't end there. Just when we reach that point in life where we have it all together, we're in the best situation to then offer to take some responsibility for something that needs our help - a person, a cause, a charity, or an event that could use a helping hand.
Making and then leaving the world a better place begins with taking responsibility for our actions.
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Comments (5)
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And I hope no one decides they don't like your comments and figure they should teach you a lesson by sticking a nail in your tire or throwing a rock through your living room window. They have your name, so they can find out your address.
Maybe an act of revenge might not be vandalism. Maybe it could be a loss of a job opportunity. Maybe a loss of a current job! Political statements have a tendancy to come back to bite you in the @$$.
So, maybe I'm being paranoid. I think I'm playing it safe.