A friend of mine, who is also a comedian, is always posting silly one-liners that really mean nothing but have the ability to incite twenty or more responses that usually range from inane to absolutely HI-larious. I love to comment and follow the additional responses that come in. It can be quite entertaining. One such status update read:
"Let's get some things off our chests. Confession time. I'll lead by example: When I was 3 yrs old, I ripped up my grandma's cigarettes. (Hey, I feel better now)."

I thought back to when I was three. I didn't have to think too hard to remember an incident, and I do remember it, clear as day. My parents owned a nice little Volkswagen Bug. I think it was a '63 or '64. It was as cute as can be. I can distinctly remember popping that little car into neutral and accidentally rolling it out of our little driveway with me in it, it curved around the street in front of our house, and I smashed that little Bug right into the neighbor's car. I know when I think about this "incident" that it was just an accident and I was just a little kid, no more than a toddler, but I have felt responsible for this my whole life. Especially when I became an adult and was buying my own cars, paying for my own insurance. The lesson was true, trust me.

I knew I had been told not to touch anything. I knew I shouldn't have jiggled that stick shift. I knew my parents would be angry. What I didn't know or comprehend, at the time, was the consequences of popping that little car out of gear. And maybe that is where we learn, where we either discover responsibility or avoid it. Consequences. We meet people every day that are very good at dodging responsibility, evading accountability, and somehow escaping liability. I am very good at assuming blame and clinging to it. The pain is the lesson, right?

The pain of a mistake or error serves as a consistent reminder of that mistake. And it is through that pain that martyrdom is born. It would be easy to fall back on it and become absolved in suffering for the sake of suffering. The ease also proves the incorrectness of the absolution we seek. We all make mistakes. We all make errors in judgment. It is those instances that prove our humanity, our human-ness. Perfection requires an awful lot of upkeep. I am not prepared for that kind of maintenance plan; I think I will stick with my humanity.

Are you ready for the consequences of your daily actions? Does this thought even enter your mind? Every phone call, every invoice, every send out, every nasty tweet, every thoughtless response has a consequence. Avoidance doesn't make consequences go away. It only prolongs the inevitable: the stand up and be counted. One way or another, one day or another, the census comes knocking. Will you be ready to answer, to accept and learn? Only time will tell.

by rayannethorn