Responsibility

Another blogger has inspired this entry with the following query about responsibility:

Talk about responsibility.

What a wide-open question! I think responsibility is a virtue that most people would like to avoid. Many people would like to avoid responsibility for their actions (I see that every day with students, and we try to correct that); many people would like to avoid responsibility. Heck, just thinking about it on a slightly different level, there's something appealing about not having responsibility in a more general sense: not having to pay bills or make important decisions at work, or worry about anything. But then, that's not how the real world works. We're surrounded by responsibility, and avoiding it (at least, avoiding it entirely) is only an immature, easy-way-out reaction. All of which isn't to say that we always have to take the hard way, that we have to take responsibility for everything for which we potentially could take responsibility.

So what do you think?

Instead of answering in the comment area of his blog, I thought I'd talk about it here.

What is responsibility for me?

As a libertine, responsibility has meant taking a good look at myself and honestly facing up to just what and who I am. After a brief misadventure into marriage, I decided to never marry again as a key point in owning and taking responsibility for the lifestyle I'd freely chosen. I wasn't about to kid myself into thinking I could live in a traditional marriage and keep up the usual expected part of the bargain.

On a practical, everyday level, being responsible as a libertine is telling any new prospective partners what I am and how I manage my relationships, so they can walk away from me if they can't handle that. Being responsible means carrying condoms with me wherever I go, because I never know when a likely prospect will cross my path, and, like a Boy Scout, my motto is "Be Prepared".

Being responsible meant sucking it up and being a father after my son's mother decided not to be responsible and bail on him, even though I never wanted to have any children. The fact was, I DID have a child, like it or not, and the responsible thing to do was to take care of him and give him a secure home. It was the right thing to do.

As an adult, being responsible means providing for oneself. I've spent a lifetime working at jobs I didn't like, jobs beneath my aptitude, working for people who did their best to demean me. I've had jobs I've had to talk myself into showing up for each and every day. Why? Because I had bills to be paid and at any particular point in time, such jobs were my means to do so. I've swallowed a lot of guff and bit back a lot of honest comments, all to provide for my son and myself, when I'd really have liked to have told them to Take This Job and Shove It.

Thoughts?