C.: (Ring) Hi, d.c. I blame you for me not finding anyone else to work for me today. That is why I have had to go in and work on my days off for the last three days.
d.: ??
C.: Oh, you didn’t know that it is national ”blame someone else day”? It happens four times a year; every Friday the thirteenth!
d.: So, today all the politicians get to blame someone else for the mistakes they have made? Isn’t that every day that ends in ”Y” in Washington? (or if one is a cat?)
C.: I suppose so… HEY! I resemble that last remark!
d.: Yes, Cal.E., you certainly do. You would also be familiar with the “blame game” now that you are working in the human kennel, in addition to the animal kennel.
C.: I thought that you said that the inmates in the human kennel were good people yesterday…
d.: I said that SOME of them were good people that got caught in bad situations. Some are vigilantes that may have saved other people’s lives by stopping someone else, but were sent to the human kennel because what they did was technically against the law. Those are the rare exceptions, though. Most of the inmates are people who did not act responsibly, and then tried to blame someone else for the way their life turned out. A bad beginning must not necessarily equal a bad outcome. I had a good friend who was abused as a small child. She was taken away from her single mom because of this, and placed in foster care. She was fortunate that her foster mom had enough money to send her to a private university when she graduated from high school. She then earned a degree in electrical engineering and went to work for a computer company, writing computer programs.
C.: It sounds as if she got lucky…
d.: Luck may have played a minor role, but the key to her success was that she did not try to blame her biological mom for her situation. She accepted that her mom was not competent to take care of her, and was grateful for the care that her foster mother gave her. It was her attitude, more than anything, that was the main reason she became successful. A lot of inmates in the Human Kennel had second chances, but were so intent on blaming someone else that they would not take responsibility for what happened in their lives. If yu spend much time talking to any of these inmates, they will tell you that it is someone else’s fault they are in the human kennel. Some will never take responsibility for the actions that led them to their current situation. Some even have the nerve to blame their victims for them being put into the human kennel.
C.: I do not let the inmates in the human kennel know that I can talk, but I do listen to what they are all saying. Some DO blame their victims, saying that if that person had not chosen to stay at home when the inmate broke into their house, he would not be charged with aggravated robbery. One observed the habits of the occupants of the house he robbed for three months. He said no one was ever at home on Tuesday nights, so that is when he chose to break into the house. The mom happened to have a bad cold and was home that night, trying to rest. He hurt her in more ways than one when he broke into the house. He still says that it was her fault that she was at home when she was not supposed to be. It added twenty years to his sentence. IF he had just chosen to leave the premises, he wouldn’t even be in the human kennel!
d.: Yes, Cal.E., there are many stories like that in the human kennel. None are pleasant, and some are very disturbing. Blaming someone else for one’s problems is not the way to be a success in life.
C.: Well said, d.c. Now I must get some rest. I need to work another twelve-hour shift tomorrow. I hope I find more workers like me soon!
d.: Good luck with that, Cal.E., and good night, sleep tight…
C.: Goodnight, d.c. (I must hang up the phone before he says the last part. That gives me the willies!)
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