“There, but by the grace of God, go I.”
Once when @imc was a few weeks old I forgot her in the car when I went in to FedEx to pick up a package.
I ran back out a minute later and thankfully she wasn’t crushed by a giant gorilla.
Once when @sophster was a baby we turned our back for a minute and she climbed her high chair and then fell off.
She cracked her skull but thankfully she wasn’t crushed by a giant gorilla.
Once when @imc was four or five we lost track of her for a moment while she was playing on the playground (at the zoo no less).
We found her a minute later sitting on a bench looking worried. Thankfully she wasn’t crushed by a giant gorilla.
It sucks that a gorilla was shot.
It sucks that a parent’s momentary lapse of attention almost got a kid killed.
It sucks that a team at the zoo had to make a very sad and difficult decision.
It kind of sucks that zoos exist in the first place.
But sometimes…
And this is one of those “secrets to a happy life” things…
Sometimes…
Bad things happen and it’s really nobody’s fault.
They just happen.
We should look. We should study. We should improve our systems and improve ourselves. We should refine our protocols. We should reexamine our assumptions. We should investigate when signs are concerning.
But we really shouldn’t blame.
Not yet anyway.
And we DEFINITELY shouldn’t hate and threaten and terrorize.
I wrote a list once about the Fundamental Attribution Error.
It applies so often.
Thankfully my many many many mess-ups were never disastrous.
Thankfully they don’t define my character.
Thankfully…