Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

I am so sick of all the excuses lately.  Jesse James used the excuse that he was physically and emotionally abused as a child by his father and that is why he cheated on Sandra Bullock.  Tiger Woods used the excuse that he was a sex addict as the reason he cheated on his wife.  Michael Jackson used the excuse that an event that happened in the late 80's was the reason he was a drug addict.  These are just celebrity examples but I have been hearing plenty of excuses with people I know.  Somehow people's behavior is excusable if they can cough up a decent reason.  It's ok to be a shitty person as long as you have some past event you can blame it on.  Whatever happened to people taking responsibility for their own actions?  It seems more common and popular to just make excuses rather than owning up.

One of my favorite actresses is Reese Witherspoon.  She and her most handsome hubby split up a few years back reportedly because he was having an affair.  In a magazine article Reese was quoted as saying that after the divorce she had to evaluate and own up to what was her responsibility in the failure of their marriage.  This is something that just made me like her even more.  In any relationship that goes sour, each person needs to own up to their responsibility.  No matter if it is a marriage, friendship, work relationship, etc.  Each person contributes to the breakdown and yes, sometimes one person contributes more to that breakdown such as cheating.  It is easier to point blame rather than looking at ourselves and what we contributed to situations. Like the saying goes, anytime you point a finger there is always three fingers pointing back at you.

One of my biggest pet peeves is someone blaming their actions on someone else or something that happened in the past.  "She has poor boundaries because she had such a rough upbringing", "He cheated because he was abused as a kid", "We stopped being friends because she talked about me behind my back".   Everyone has difficult times in their life but some use that difficult time to make excuses and gather sympathy rather than grow up and be an adult.  So in essence, grow a pair and take some responsibility rather than making excuses.