Furmanifesto

Bettman/Corbis

When caught in sin we have a choice about how to handle both the ensuing confrontation and the person who is confronting us.

Will we confess to what we’ve done, or defer to irresponsibility in hope of escape?

It seems that confession, while good for the soul, is very difficult to come by.  Consider the public confession made by President Richard Nixon following the investigation into his role in the Watergate Scandal of 1974:

“I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.”

While Nixon’s appeal to nation’s best interest (his re-election) may be the most obvious piece of self-serving manipulation in the statement, the fact that he confesses to virtually nothing is the sign that even though convicted of breaking the law, he still saw himself as guiltless…

…because “Patriotism” made him do it.

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“Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl

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Andrew McCutchen is a 26 year-old center fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  His abilities as a fielder and a batter have earned him a contract worth more than $50 million over the next 6 years.

Yesterday he tweeted a picture of the double-wide trailer that he was raised in.  Along with the picture were the words, “came a long way since livin here… Thank you God for all youve done n my life #amen”.

McCutchen didn’t get to pick the family that he’d be born into.
He didn’t get to determine where that family would live.
There was no choice about the home he’d be raised in.

He only got to pick the response that he would have to those humble circumstances.

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Last month Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc across the eastern seaboard of the United States.  Despite days of advance warning and round-the-clock news coverage, the majority of people living in areas that would be afflicted chose to stay in their homes.

When interviewed about “why they stayed”, no one claimed to have been uninformed about the immense hurricane bearing down on them.  Each of them offered their own excuse for refusing to evacuate:

“Newscasters always exaggerate.”

“I’ve been in a hurricane before.”

“I didn’t want anyone to loot my house.”

If these excuses sound eerily familiar, it’s because they are echoes of the statements made by many who stayed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

It seems as if there’s no way to get people to behave responsibly in the face of impending disaster.

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