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It’s All My Fault (A Lesson In Personal Responsibility)
“I think if someone gets kicked in the face it is their fault – they watched the foot come towards their face.”
– Kevin Hart
We have a wonderful 13-year-old black Labrador retriever named Iso. Today, he bit me, and it was all my fault.
Let me explain before you go calling for his disposal.
Iso celebrated New Year’s by getting sick. Sunday, I woke up to a mess in the mud room. Thankfully, it could easily be cleaned up. Unfortunately, this was repeated several times Sunday and Monday while our family was either sleeping or away from the house unable to let him outside to take care of himself.
Finally on Monday morning, Leanne called the veterinarian who provided us with a week’s worth of two oral medications and some sort of canine probiotic for his food. In order to give Iso his oral medication, I have to physically open his jaw, insert the pills down his throat, and quickly close his mouth to make sure the pills go down.
This morning while I was giving him his medication, Iso clamped down on my left thumb while I was giving him his medication. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt me. (If you’ve ever met Iso, you know he wouldn’t hurt anyone.) He just didn’t like the presence of my hand down his throat.
I quickly realized he had punctured my skin in two places, so I washed up the wound, put on a couple of band-aids, and headed out the door to work.
The who incident made me think of this video that went viral a few years ago.
Charlie’s brother put his own finger in his brother’s mouth and then wondered why Charlie bit his finger.
We live in a culture of blame – of passing the buck. We find ourselves in a troubling situation, and we look for someone besides ourselves to take responsibility for the problems we face.
Iso bit my finger, because I had my hand in his mouth. It was all my fault.
As a husband and a father, it’s time for us to take responsibility for our failures. Believe me, I fail all the time. It’s time to put an end to passing the buck to our spouses, our children, our pets, and others around us.
It’s time to recognize our failings and find ways to overcome them in the future by taking responsibility for our actions, by learning, and by making the necessary changes in our lives.
The next time I give Iso his medication, I’ll find another way to make sure I don’t leave my hands in his mouth.