“I Didn’t ‘Ask’ You…I TOLD You.”

Daily Meditation 531–8/10/2023

“Jenny, dear — go clean up the mess in the bathroom.”

“Bu…But! Mom! That was Henry’s mess! I didn-”

“Jenny! I didn’t ask you ‘Who made the mess in the bathroom?’ I told you to please go clean the mess. Now go. Chop chop!”

Growing up, did you ever experience something like this?

I personally didn’t have siblings, but rather had very close cousins (and of course friends), and still encountered situations like this.

It didn’t feel “fair.”
It wasn’t my mess, after all.

But I still went and cleaned it up (as I’m 100% certain you did, too, under threat of “wait until your father gets home”).

Life is full of messes and problems. It’s not always just toothpaste on a mirror or a dirty sock that missed the hamper.

It’s your kid being pulled over drunk driving at 19.
It’s your neighbor’s garbage that was tipped over and raided by raccoons, sending trash literally all over your entire block.
It’s the person stuck on the ice on a hill with a stoplight at the top.

You can scream at them.
You can demand them to pick up the trash.
You can lay on your horn…

But you cannot rely on anyone else to do anything.

So, when things need to be taken care of, sometimes you just have to be the one who does it. No one else.

Not always — often, the other person(s) will take the onus of responsibility…
But be ready to step up in any situation and take the reins.

Be willing to do what needs to be done.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”