Blame

Yesterday I had a couple instances of seeing myself and others react to blame.

First of all, I received an email from a work colleague that I was CC'd on responding to an email from a doctor pointing the finger at me for not doing something. I saw myself get defensive and not wanting to accept the blame. It's irrelevant whether I was at fault, as my mind instantly put up it's defenses of not wanting to be blamed. I wrote a response email that tried to be diplomatic but I'm sure my ego shown through brightly.

Then, later in the day, my translator was blamed for something being translated incorrectly. Another foreigner had written the English version and she felt blamed that the English version was confusing. She then passed the blame to another colleague who had advised her on the topic.

More so in the second scenario, but a little in both, it's interesting to see how hard we all work to try to pass the blame. Especially when there is any debate on whether we are at fault to begin with. We don't want to accept responsibility ever. It hurts our ego to feel that fault placed on us.

The thing is that in the second scenario I could see how insignificant this blame and issue was. But it was no more insignificant than my email scenario from the morning, and I remembered how strongly that had brought up my defenses and ego.

It was a great learning experience due to the fact that the situations were so similar yet I was in a different place in the scene. It makes me smile to see these things even if it is only little by little that they become more clear and accessible.