Blame Game Blues? Let’s Choose a New Game, the Adventure Game
Sometimes I get so scared I become angry. I desperately want someone to blame for my predicament.
Sometimes I get so scared
I become angry.
I desperately want someone to blame
for my predicament.
It doesn’t really matter who
so long as I see a target
I will aim my bow of anger
and let the arrows fly.
Republicans, Democrats, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton
FOX News, MSNBC, YouTubers, the Mainstream Media
Capitalism, Communism, Corporations, Hollywood
the Koch Brothers, George Soros, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates
The target does not matter,
all are bullseyes to focus my blame,
to aim my arrows of unexamined fears
and feel damn good about it.
Of course I know these targets aren’t real,
of course I know the arrows have no ability
to do the damage I want them to,
yet still I fire them.
Because stopping means
I might have to ask myself: why?
Why am I participating in this pointless exercise?
It’s fruitless, its pleasure is fleeting, its pain enduring
It sucks the Life out of me,
this game of Scapegoat Sweepstakes
I spin the wheel each day,
focusing my wrath, knowing the wheel’s choice doesn’t matter.
As long as I continue to play
I can tell myself I am doing something,
I am part of the solution,
not the problem.
No, the problem is today’s target
and I’ll let it know
by how rapidly I fire these arrows,
by how many times I reload my rifle
As I change the metaphor
I’m hoping you don’t see
that I’m tricking you with my narratives,
praying I don’t see that I’m tricking myself.
Step right up, spin the wheel,
watch it land on the latest YouTube video,
the latest New York Times article,
the latest offering from my podcast app.
These will inform me
oh-so convincingly!!
about today’s target
at which I aim my grief, my fear.
But what if?
What if I wake up tomorrow
and the game no longer works?
What if, in an instant,
I see clearly that it’s been a game all along?
What if I realize
that it’s me,
I’ve been the willing participant
in my own self-deception?
What will I do?
What will you do?
What will we do?
What will WE do?
Do you want to find out with me?
Do you want to see what kind of world
we can create when we give up
this game of Scapegoat Sweepstakes?
What kind of world,
if we begin a New Game
A Choose Your Own Adventure
where the goal is not to blame?
The goal is to get honest
with ourselves about our fears
and determine
how we can address them.
A game where we are
scientific experimenters playfully peering behind the curtains
pulling the levers, adjusting the dials
and asking:
What kind of world do I want?
What kind of world
can we create together,
if we give up victimhood
and find ourselves empowered?
What do you say,
is it worth trying?
Is it worth playing this new game,
even one day, to see what happens?
After all, by the state of the world
and how we’ve been feeling about our lives,
isn’t it hard to justify
playing the old game?
What’s the point of it, right?
Why play a game that only feels good for a moment
but keeps us miserable in the long run?
Why not quit and play another?
So: what do you say?
Shall we play a new game today?