November's Reflection: Recklessness, yet Responsibility

Recklessness, yet responsibility.

November’s reflection, recklessness, yet responsibility, was a tough one for me. I started off thinking about it 10 days ago, and really didn’t know what I was supposed to figure out here. Responsibility is obviously better than recklessness after all. Planning, execution, reward, that is how responsibility works and how you always win at the end of a long day. I’ve seen countless reckless people suffer needlessly by neglecting the path of responsibility, so case closed, responsibility wins, knockout! Only, I knew I was missing something. I couldn’t quite place it, but an uncertain feeling scratched at the edge of my mind, insisting that something else had to be there, the case couldn’t be so easily closed.

Having ascertained that I was missing something, I decided that the best way to figure it out was to take turns being reckless and responsible throughout the week. It was a strange feeling, acting reckless and responsible in equal parts with deliberate action, but I noticed some things, recklessness didn’t always cause suffering, and there was a strange familiarity to it. It wasn’t actually until I started writing the first paragraph to this that I was finally able to place that feeling, and see all the pieces of this puzzle fall into place.

Reckless action has been at the center of a few of the major changes in my life. About a year after college, I realized I was in a rut at home, my parents weren’t giving me any reason to improve myself, and somewhere along the line, I stopped caring. I was doing volunteer work, but didn’t have a paying job. I did odd jobs here and there, but for the most part, I was spinning my wheels in apathy. One day, I woke up, took stock of my situation and realized that the best parts of me were on ice, sure to die if I didn’t take action. So, I moved out the next day, no job, no prospects, and one plan: survive. It was the epitome of reckless behavior, but it lead to me owning my own life, getting paying jobs, and moving forward in life.

I exhibited similar extreme reckless behavior in two other instances, getting married after only six months of dating, and quitting my retail job without another job lined up. Both of those acts of recklessness made my family think I was insane, but today, I’m 3 years happily married with a family of 5 cats to keep my wife and I company, and I’m a security supervisor in a federally funded non-profit program with room for advancement to higher management attainable within the next few months. Reckless action helped me to achieve my goals, and become a healthier, happier, and stronger person.

Now, I don’t recommend following in my footsteps and taking giant leaps of recklessness like I did. Listen to the universe, feel the Force flow through you, and when the time comes to leap, you will know it. Most importantly though, the journey doesn’t stop with one reckless bound, it continues when you take responsibility for the new circumstances you find yourself in, in my case, when I applied for jobs, and took some pretty horrible ones early on, and also worked my ass off to make this marriage work.

Recklessness without responsibility brings suffering, but under the right circumstance and with the right mindset, responsibility with recklessness can improve and even save your life.

This was not meant to be essay length when I started, but oh well, I kind of like it. Now if you made it this far, congratulations, and, it’s your turn. What have you found this month while reflecting on recklessness, yet responsibility? If you haven’t thought about it, there’s still time! Share your thoughts, I would love to read them.

Joreguar