Wednesday, April 30, 2014

"I did it on purpose"

My mother once told me that when I was little, she caught me doing something naughty ... who knows what -- kids are always up to something. She said that I knew I was in trouble and began to cry.

Finally, in the midst of chewing me out, she asked the key question: "But why did you do that?"

And in a fit of absolute, wet-cheeked anguish, I replied, "I did it on purpose."

Talk about the truth coming "out of the mouths of babes!"

How many excuses and explanations and meanings adorn human actions? The tinsel and lights hung on the trees of action can be so bright ... as if explanations ever really explained. How much responsibility is eluded or camouflaged or given an improved meaning?

Worth remembering, I suspect:

I did it on purpose.

1 comment:

  1. The correct answer would be "dunno". Idea's pop into our heads, we dunno why, we dunno why we act on them without consideration, responsibility requires more effort than a child is capable of. My inner shrink thinks you took on survivors guilt typical of children from broken homes and such. The anguish and regret that you're the low life form that caused pain to another. Then again, maybe you were precocious enough to know how best to get the incident over with so you could move on with life. My admiration for you and fear for your inner child are now conflicted. Dunno. lol

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