you don't know my plight (CFC, part 2)

Equally or more fascinating is Angie Stone. Angie doesn't make me angry, but rather represents a mindset or modus operandi that frustrates me, and that is: not taking responsibility for one's own actions. A lot of people seem to subscribe to the philosophy that everything bad that ever happened to them is someone else's fault, particularly in this litiginous society, where you can actually get money by blaming someone else. I'm not saying all blame lawsuits are crap; some are perfectly valid, and wronged parties should be compensated accordingly. But many, many blame lawsuits seem to cross over the line of what is responsible and right.

And, many, many people seem to think that life is something that happens to them, rather than the result of choices. True, you are born with a set of circumstances, and there are innumerable things that you just can't change, or simply cannot control. Bad things will happen, and when you are in that bad place, it may often seem like you'll never get out. What you do have control over, though, are the choices you make. Granted, it is not always easy to make good choices, and hindsight, as always, is 20/20. And we all make mistakes. And no one is perfect. Et cetera.

The main point I'm trying to make without sounding like a total jackass know-it-all (because I might be a jackass, but I sure don't know it all) is that some people will go through their life never seeing, realizing, or accepting this fact of self-made choices. It's not a knowledge you are born with; I certainly can't look back on my teens or early 20s and say that I really "got it." Good grief, no. That lesson was hard-learned, and many times over. But some people, such as Angie in the past two eps of Fit Club, can literally have the fact spelled out for them in a million different ways and still get pissed and say, nope, uh-uh, you do not understand. I have had pain in my life. You do not get my schedule. You do not know what I have been through, what I go through every single day.

The implication kind of galls me. Because, no, I don't know. I don't walk in your shoes. But guess what--everyone goes through stuff. Some people--yes--more so than others. You saying that you can't do it, though, that you can't at least recognize the fact that you do have a choice and can't try to make good ones because of what you're buried by in your physical and emotional life? That is to assume that your "plight" is worse than any other. That you're the only one in the whole world with problems. That people who choose to motivate themselves and make their lives and their lifestyle and who they are better--those people must not have problems, right? At least not so big as yours.

But that outlook, the one where you choose to wallow and be beaten down by life, rather than try to make changes and be better for yourself and others? That's a choice, too. So Angie, or whoever--don't play the victim, sister.