IT'S ALL MARTHA'S FAULT

IT’S ALL MARTHA’S FAULT

Recently Charlie underwent yet another test to determine whether or not he would have to have neck surgery. Although an X-ray and an MRI showed he had arthritis in his spine, the Myelogram was clear and only revealed a misalignment. Supposedly, putting his neck in a weighted traction device three times a day should have him fixed good as new.


I still contend it’s all Martha’s fault! In case you’re wondering who Martha is, she is Charlie’s younger sister. Currently Martha lives in Indiana and would probably have a fit if she knew I was blaming her for Charlie’s structural problems.

Since we married 39 years ago, Charlie has had 15 major surgeries and nearly every single surgery had something to do with his bone structure. Replacement of both knees and a shoulder; several bone fusions in his spine; metal plate in his ankle…and the list goes on.

When Martha and Charlie were growing up in the hills of West Virginia they had milk delivered to their doorstep in the early morning hours. Martha would sneak out of the house and pop open the bottles and drink the cream, leaving the ‘blue’ milk for everybody else in the family.


I told you it was all Martha’s fault! Poor Charlie never got enough calcium to strengthen those bones of his. Wait till I see her next time. I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.

Blaming others is just part of our old nature. We get it honest from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Remember how they shifted the blame when God confronted them about their disobedience in the Garden of Eden?

“Adam, did you eat that fruit I told you not to eat?” He immediately passed the buck to Eve. It was that dratted woman. She made him do it. Yeah! Right!

“Eve, did you eat that fruit I told you not to eat?” Her response was real creative. She blamed the devil. Heard that line before? The devil made me do it. Right again.


Recently I read a column by blogger John Lott in which he did some research on how many times our president has put the blame for our depressed economy on people and situations. It was quite astounding. (John Lott, Blogger)

Naturally we’ve all heard about how this is all former President Bush’s fault, but did you know it was also the fault of the Arab Spring and the earthquake in Japan? Of course we know it’s also Congress, technology, Republicans, Oil Speculators, the Gulf oil spill and corporations, etc.


Lott says to… “do a Google search on it. "Obama blames" as a Google search term returns more than 490,000 hits. "Obama blames," no quotes -- just "Obama blames" -- returns 6,920,000 results on Google. Obama blames, Obama blames...” I don’t think he mentioned Martha on this list.

In October of 1945 one of our most famous Democratic presidents, Harry S. Truman had a sign made that said, “The Buck Stops Here”. In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, “The President--whoever he is--has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job.”


Family Circus, a cartoon strip, is in its 50th year. The cartoon runs in 1,500 papers and is a cartoon view of home life. One of the characters appears as a ghost who hovers nearby when the cartoon children do something naughty. When confronted they say, “Not me. I didn’t do it. It’s not my fault.” (Too bad they didn’t know about Martha!)


I guess it’s time that everyone, including me, begins to take responsibility for their own actions. Charlie should have gotten up earlier and beat Martha to the cream; after two and a half years and $479 billion in total stimulus funds, President Obama needs to claim ownership of this economy; and each of us needs to accept responsibility for our own sinful condition.

The old spiritual went something like this, “It’s not my father or my mother but it’s ME, O Lord standing in the need of prayer. It’s not my sister or my brother, but it’s ME O, Lord standing in the need of prayer.”