Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” So, let’s examine it together. In Etymology, I’ll be presenting a word each week with its generally accepted definition and riffing on this word as a way to get us to talk about life together. This is meant to be a discussion based article, with emphasis on “together.” In one sense, these articles will be written and complete when they are published, but they will not be whole without your input. All of us could use better words to describe our lives. So, let’s go through life together in words. Helping each other and improving together and always remembering to breathe.
By Brianne Leith
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
-Abraham Lincoln
I have been irresponsible. The more responsibilities I have the more I find myself neglecting them. I have found more important things than my responsibility. I have found the importance of spending countless hours with the new people in my life. I have found the importance of going out and having a good time. I have found the importance of avoiding anything work related.
This is ridiculously silly in my case, because both jobs I have are fun and immensely enjoyable. At Vivo! I talk to people, listen to whatever music I want to, randomly watch my favorite shows on the World-Wide Interwebs, and I get paid for it. And my other job is writing articles. I meet and talk to amazing artists, have beautiful photo shoots, and am just surrounded by art and that feeling of ecstasy that being engulfed by art creates. Or I just sit and muse on my computer about a random word for the week.
Of course there are other things that I have to do at both jobs that constitute them as work and not just play, but many people do not have the luxury to have jobs that are as entertaining and fulfilling.
So, what am I doing neglecting work that I feel privileged to have? Avoiding responsibility that no one would consider a burden?
Responsibility is defined as:
1. the state or fact of being answerable or accountable, as for something within one’s power, control, or management
2. a particular burden of obligation upon one who is responsible
We can say that responsibilities are the most important things in our lives. They are the things that keep the world turning and our lives progressing. They are the elements that our lives revolve around. They are what mark our lives. They are living.
So, why do we avoid them as if they are detrimental?
Why did I come up with the word “Responsibility” to write on about two weeks ago, and never wrote on it?
Instead I wrote on nothing. And nothing was written.
I shirked the responsibility of “responsibility.”
“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.”
Josiah Charles Stamp
Let us be responsible for the most important things in our lives…
Our responsibilities.
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