If there is anyone who can be scammed, it is Sincerely. It’s not so much that it’s stupid; I am naive. I believe that when someone says something, he means exactly what he says.
So if you can’t rip me off, you better hang up and get a real job. I must confess that I often know that a certain person is trying to take advantage of me. But that is another story.
One problem I see is that people are always blaming someone else for their problems. I must confess that I do that on occasion, probably more than I’ll admit.
Blaming someone else for my problem gets me off the hook, or so I think.
I’ll gladly take the credit, but I’m slow to accept the blame. I’m trying to change that a bit, but it’s slow progress.
The other day, the Graceful Lady of the Parochial House and I were going downtown to do some shopping. I don’t always go with her when she goes shopping, but sometimes it’s necessary.
During these times, I always allow you to drive your vehicle. He has a wonderful red van and he likes to drive it. I encourage her to drive it, and not because I don’t like to drive, or because she’s a better driver than I am.
If the truth were known, and I keep this a bit under wraps, I’ll let her drive because I’m not using my vehicle’s gas when she drives. I’m not stingy, but I’m pretty stingy when it comes to money.
She is an excellent driver, and why shouldn’t she be? I’m the one who taught him how to drive. Enough said on that subject.
As we were driving down the main street, several cars were weaving in and out of traffic and my wife nearly hit one.
Completely frustrated, she said, “For God’s sake, what’s wrong with people these days?”
Since she was in the driver’s seat, he needed to go with her and keep his mouth shut. There are many occasions when I need to open my mouth, but I have yet to discover which ones. As she drives, this is one of the times I keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself.
She repeated this phrase several times to the store and on the way home.
I helped carry the items from the store to the house while keeping my mouth shut.
We ate dinner and then went into the living room for coffee and some news on TV. I like to try to keep up with what’s going on in the world.
Several stories were just outrageous, and people were doing crazy things.
It wasn’t long before my wife said, “For God’s sake, what’s wrong with people today?”
Okay, I guess I had enough of that, and I wanted to get to the bottom without sinking my ship.
“Who,” I said as calmly as possible, “is Pete, and what does he have to do with any of this?”
She looked at me, gave me one of her stars, and then went back to watching the news.
It wasn’t long before another story appeared on the screen, and she said, “For God’s sake, doesn’t anyone know anything different?”
I tried to control myself. Honestly, I tried. But at this point, he had crossed the line, and I said, “Who is Pete? Do I know him?”
I did my best to control any giggles. I looked at her and she looked back at me with another one of her stars.
“Well, who do you think it is?”
At that point, I was tempted to reply, “Does Pete have anything to do with Jake?” She knew he would be in more trouble than he could handle right now. I feel like he was getting a little frustrated, but most of his frustration was directed at me.
To look at me and say, “What are you laughing at?”
I couldn’t contain myself at that moment. I replied, “I was just thinking of a joke.” There is no point showing my hand at this point.
For several days he never used that phrase, at least in my audience. And I was waiting for it.
I can only hold back for so long. One night there was a loud noise like gunshots outside, and we couldn’t figure out what it was.
Looking at my wife, I said, “Call Pete and ask him what’s going on.”
She gave me one of her looks and finally said, “Why don’t you call Jake and ask him?”
Finally, we laughed together more sincerely. I love when a joke comes together.
I thought about this for a couple of days. How often do we blame people for things that don’t even make sense? We really don’t want to take personal responsibility for a lot of things.
Thinking about this, I remembered a biblical passage. “And the man said: The woman whom you gave me as a companion gave me from the tree, and I ate. And Jehovah God said to the woman: What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12-13).
Blaming others is not a new phenomenon. But, it just gets us in trouble and what started the mess was today. Accept the blame and move on with your life.