{"id":760,"date":"2011-11-04T00:12:25","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/?p=760"},"modified":"2011-11-04T00:12:25","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:12:25","slug":"the-blame-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/the-blame-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blame Game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>Hattie used to say “ya’ll point ya’lls finger at someone they’ll be three point’in right back at cha”.\u00a0\u00a0 She would say this when after a terribly fun time in the family room-the den we called it-we would get to playing and playing turned to something getting broken.\u00a0 Hattie would run in from the kitchen, leaving the fried bologna in the pan and look at us-quiet now, looking down at the floor-never at the broken object-and she’d say:<\/p>\n

“Alright now, who did it?”<\/p>\n

I would point at my brother, my brother would point at me and the kid from down the street would shrug his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Silence.\u00a0 Nothing but fingers.\u00a0 And shoulders.\u00a0 Stuck up right by his ears.\u00a0 Frozen.<\/p>\n

“I told ya’ll not to be horse’in round. Now who did it?”<\/p>\n

Fingers and shoulders stay where they are.<\/p>\n

Frying bologna beckons<\/p>\n

Hattie leaves the room throwing the dishtowel over her shoulder along with her finger pointing quote.<\/p>\n

“Ya’ll keep point’in.\u00a0 Ya’ll got one finger in someones face and three pointing right back at you.\u00a0 Hmmmmmmmp.”<\/p>\n

I think about it every time I find myself pointing-literally or figuratively.\u00a0 That one powerful finger pointing at someone else-and those three pointing right back at me. AS we navigate human error-community issues and worldly turbulence, it is easy to point the finger.\u00a0 That one defiant moment when blame goes right away-up and out through the very tip of the pointer.\u00a0 Mr. Pointer.\u00a0 And yet, and yet, what is held in the those three pointing back?\u00a0 Guilt?\u00a0 Weakness?\u00a0 Ignorance?\u00a0 More defiance?\u00a0 Times 3?\u00a0 So there in my quest to shift and be brighter, lighter and more Buddha like.\u00a0 There in those moments I am back on the road to a well lived life, I look a little more closer not at Mr. Pointer-but at those other three fingers that fold down and point back.\u00a0 And one by one I name them:\u00a0 Acceptance, and it unfolds. Courage, and it unfolds. Love, and it unfolds.\u00a0 I am now looking at an open hand-palm up-open.\u00a0 Mr. Pointer is now part of the pack-the whole hand. The whole.<\/p>\n

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