Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation. — Henry Fielding
A fellow at a meeting told a strange story to make a point about the very human tendency to take on undeserved guilt. The story was about a little trick he liked to play in his office once in a while. It seems he would choose a fellow employee at random, approach him innocently, and whisper, “They know,” while looking around furtively. Then he would walk away quickly and watch what happened from a distance. Inevitably, he said, the recipient of this strange message first looked bewildered and then looked worried. Sometimes the person would start to sweat, the man said, and every time his frantic thoughts became nearly visible on his face: “Oh my God, how much do they know? What will they do about it? Will they tell anyone?”
The point was that nearly everybody is vulnerable to shame. Even the innocent have a knee-jerk tendency to conceal and protect. How horrified would we be, he asked, if someone whispered “They know” to us? Would we panic? Or would we be healthy enough to laugh it off since there is nothing anyone else could know that we aren’t already dealing with?
Today, I pray for the courage to keep on working through my fear.
Hazelden Foundation
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