Hello Bumby Here.
A Troglodyte… Yes, I said a Troglodyte. That was the name given to me the other day after I answered a question, and the person asking, did not like the answer given. I try to be as honest as I can and speak from my heart. I will tell you from the outset, I will be spreading my thoughts out over a few different posts. The reason is simple, I want you to think.
I have wrestled with writing this series of posts, because I know that I will offend some people and become a Troglodyte in their eyes, while others will sing my praise.
What do you believe? Not what are you expected to believe and think but truly what …Do you believe and think about Personal Responsibility ?
I thought I knew the answer, but after deconstructing my thoughts and belief system, I came away from the experience very surprised, some beliefs held up some did not.
This is not a post that I want you to walk away from and forget. I want it to follow you, until you take a serious look at yourself. My reasons are simple. We are entering a time in this country that we must be crystal clear as WASPs, Preppies, as Americans… What do I believe?
I grew up in a time and place, a family and a tribe, that stressed the notion of Personal Responsibility. Now I said stressed, I did not say practiced. For me the practice came in my thirties, it came silently and quickly… Well, that’s a lie, looking back it was as thunderous as a steam locomotive traveling down a downtown street at 3 am.
In eight short years after receiving the first installment of my trust, I had partied it away. I would go on to lose all the houses, cars, boats, ponies, friends and lovers that I had.
Two years later my Dad would die, leaving me the responsibility of the family, but with no money.
The family trust is so structured that every other generation receives. I now have a limited say in how the trust makes and spends its money, but at this time I do not receive. I have shared this because when I speak of Personal Responsibility, it is from this place of humility that I share.
For me, Personal Responsibility is a moral… a core belief system issue, which then extends into an act of moral conscience. Early in my childhood, I was taught that as a wealthy man there was a code that you live by. This code can be found in the book of Proverbs chapters 22 and 23
What I have learned in the past 16 years is this… You and only you are responsible for your life choices.
The good ones and the bad ones. When those choices turn out for the good you rejoice, but do not boast, and when your choices turn out to be crap you don’t complain, you learn from them and pick up a shovel and go about the task of cleaning up the mess you have made.
You might ask …OK, where are you going with this train of thought ? Glad you asked, because it is at this time that I am going to ask you to begin that task of thinking… About the choices that you have made in your life. What do you really think about Personal Responsibility? We will cover many areas in the next few posts. This blog is about Celebrating live as a Preppy, WASP Male in a society that is ever increasingly blurring the lines . I will not allow this blog to become a place of hate or malicious speech But I will say that if the shoe fits wear it.
And we will pick this up in my next post and you will at that time learn why someone called me a Troglodyte and if I deserve that name.
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it, The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear…… Nelson Mandela
Always Bumby Please join me at my sister site The Preppy Chronicles II
The Preppy Chronicles Edition I Vol.4
I can relate to blowing through the money. In my early twenties I partied away way too much money. All I wanted when I was younger was access to my portion of the trust. Now I wish they hadn’t let me touch it untill I had my son. Thats when I really grew up and started to take responsibility for my actions.
Thank you Brian for your comment.
An honorable post Bumby describing an honorable operating philosophy, frequently missing in many lives today. It also happens to be one of our most storied rants as a manager all those years in tv.
Smiles to you,
tp
I tend to appreciate people who can speak their minds. Some do it better than others, but I think that is what living is for – having opinions and ideas, being agreeable or disagreeable and having conversations about the mechanics of life itself. What we have learned and what we can share, hopefully for the benefit of others. Not one person will be right about everything, only God can command that spot. On personal responsibility, I’m with you 100 percent on not trying to pin the blame on others for our own stuff ups.