"It's not my fault, I didn't mean to!"
Need I say more?
Probably. Okay, think about it; these two statements DO NOT GO TOGETHER.
"I didn't mean to!" is a statement of intent, of will. But whether you MEANT to or NOT, if your dog bites the man, your camp fire or flicked cigarette butt burns down the forest, or you drunkenly run into a school bus full of children...
... it may still be YOUR FAULT. Own up to it, learn from it, and move on.
In fact, if you never own up to fault, you won't learn or grow, you'll be stuck as an irresponsible, useless person; a child in adult skin. That does nobody any favors.
Fault and Intent are not dependent conditions.
You wish your horrible gym teacher were dead and... he gets run over by a school bus full of drunken football players. Was it your fault? You meant for it to happen! But if you didn't drive the bus, or push the teacher, then no... the causality between wishing and events is a form of magical thinking that, sadly or fortunately, is not true.
Likewise, the disavowal of fault because of intent is the reverse form. Your intent may be as pure as the driven snow, but still, when your game of William Tell puts an arrow through your little brother's eye... it's your fault. Sucks, doesn't it?
And, of course, sometimes it is nobody's fault, but that is a different discussion about our crazy, litigation-happy society, where people think it has to be someone's, anyone's, fault... but their own.
Because, after all, they didn't "mean to".
"It's not my fault, I didn't mean to!"
Need I say more?
Probably. Okay, think about it; these two statements DO NOT GO TOGETHER.
"I didn't mean to!" is a statement of intent, of will. But whether you MEANT to or NOT, if your dog bites the man, your camp fire or flicked cigarette butt burns down the forest, or you drunkenly run into a school bus full of children...
... it may still be YOUR FAULT. Own up to it, learn from it, and move on.
In fact, if you never own up to fault, you won't learn or grow, you'll be stuck as an irresponsible, useless person; a child in adult skin. That does nobody any favors.
Fault and Intent are not dependent conditions.
You wish your horrible gym teacher were dead and... he gets run over by a school bus full of drunken football players. Was it your fault? You meant for it to happen! But if you didn't drive the bus, or push the teacher, then no... the causality between wishing and events is a form of magical thinking that, sadly or fortunately, is not true.
Likewise, the disavowal of fault because of intent is the reverse form. Your intent may be as pure as the driven snow, but still, when your game of William Tell puts an arrow through your little brother's eye... it's your fault. Sucks, doesn't it?
And, of course, sometimes it is nobody's fault, but that is a different discussion about our crazy, litigation-happy society, where people think it has to be someone's, anyone's, fault... but their own.
Because, after all, they didn't "mean to".
There has been some call for me to start blogging my projects again -- so I'll probably do that.
Need to find a way to RSS or otherwise feed this into Face Book and the Scare blog site; it already makes its way in to Live Journal.
Upcoming projects include the ongoing prosthetic tooth work (vampires and demons, oh my!); blood pumps and custom blood coloring/thickening (now with clots!); haunt timing, communication, and control; sculpting, molding and casting prosthetic makeup; digitigrade stilt development; articulated wings (possibly powered); and.... umm.... vortex tunnel and the tools to build it!
Either that, or live video footage of my head exploding from over-reaching.
Stay tuned!