We All Make Mistakes, So Let Us Learn From Them.

As a child our parents take all the heat for our mistakes, but as we get older we must take responsibility for our own actions and lack of actions. Before it started to get cold this winter, my friend and roommate, asked me to cover the vents around the house. I could not find the plugs, so I used cardboard to cut off the airflow under the house. The cardboard may have been good for a temporary fix but I forgot to ask if any one knew where the plugs were. Although it doesn't get cold in the Pacific North West, there was another threat to the house that the plugs are meant to protect against that neither of us had considered, animals. The cardboard worked against the pipes freezing but was not adequate against the wildlife. As a result I need to pay my friend back over $1000.00 in damages under the house. It is amazing what a 30 cent plug was guarding against. So now I will learn to pay better attention to details that could be so costly in the future.

But we all make mistakes. Over Christmas my wife and Doug, our roommate, decided to go on to this new diet. So they went to the store and filled the fridge with food that I was not meant to touch. My wife Kansa spent over twice our normal food budget to do this, meaning Doug and Kansa were eating three meals a day while I was eating Ramon once a day. Needless to say I was forced on to this diet with them. After a week of watching the two of them eating food that I paid for but was not allowed to touch and me being the only one in the house that works, I was pissed off. I knew that they just did not look at the whole picture and I was hurt that they did not even think of me, but people make mistakes. My family is still on this diet that does not make a lick of sense to me, but they are now including my in the food purchases.

People are going to make mistakes, it is how we deal with and own up to those mistakes that defines who we are. In both cases the people involved owned up to the mistakes that were made, but many of use don't do as well. Doug and I were introduced to a man named Ira by a mutual friend. Ira is so concerned about not paying off back child support that he will not get a job unless it pays him under the table, so his checks will not be garnished. His refusal to own up to his own responsibilities means that he has been couch surfing for years and has alienated every one he has come in contact with. If he would begin to own up to his mistakes as well as his responsibilities and other consequences, Ira's life would be so much easier. But the lack of ownership of our responsibilities is not confined to the individual person. Businesses such as Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae were bailed out by the most irresponsible president America has ever known. But the major corporations are not the only companies who misbehaves.

Portland's own Mattress World, that is owned by Sherry Lewis was not paying her full time permanent Sign-walkers. So they would tell every one on the street not to shop there. After a Labor and Industries investigation, mattress world was forced to pay and in retaliation, Sherry Lewis cut all of the sign-walker positions and employed temporary works. On the surface this seems fine, but let me break it down for you. The Temp is never going to know that the payroll check bounces, so they aren't going to retaliate by telling every one that Mattress World screws their employees. This insurance must be enough to justify pay $9.00 more an hour that could have and should have gone to the 52 permanent employees that she fired for just wanting to get paid. Well as a former employee of Mattress World, I have to say that Sherry Lewis should go out of business.

After all for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. We are feeling the effect of Obama's bailouts because the money has to come from somewhere. My not tending to the house will cost my family money to fix the damages. If Ira would have considered the consequences of his actions he would not have 8 illegitimate children that he owe child support for. If Mattress World didn't treat their employees the way they did, they wouldn't be going out of business. You see the cause and effect in each situation is clear. If you live to serve you will be served: however, if you live to take advantage of people you will be taken advantage of.