(Photo: Red and the puppy Fate)

I am an unlikely person to ever become a prophet of responsibility, I was well along in life before I understood the importance of taking responsibility for me or anyone or anything else. I had rarely, if ever done it.

Lots of people paid the price. Me too.

It was only when I was hanging on by fingernails that I understood that my healing and recovery – and my life – was so closely tied to this idea of responsibility.

I remember telling a shrink that I didn’t wish to die in this way, I wanted to one day be the Prophet Of Responsibility, that was one of my ambitions and goals. At the time, it seemed delusional.

I certainly understood what it meant to avoid taking responsibility. I didn’t understand money, patience, my duty to other people, my family,  my work. I took no responsibility for myself and acted accordingly, and I paid and paid for that great mistake.

When I finally woke up, I did become a prophet of responsibility, albeit an imperfect one.

I am on the path, let’s say, making good progress. My life depends on it.

When people talk about polarization and division, I had a somewhat radical idea about the great divide. The schism isn’t about the left and the right, it’s often about responsibility, one of the universal threads that runs through all of our lives.

If I have a political difference with others, it isn’t Republican versus Democrat, or Blue versus Red, or Left versus Right. It’s about taking responsibility.

I believe we are responsible for the needy and the helpless.

I believe we are responsible for the refugee and the immigrant.

I believe we are responsible for the worker and the people who labor for us.

I believe we are responsible for Mother Earth, we are the stewards of our bleeding planet.

I believe we are responsible for the animals of the earth, we must keep them among us, or we shall forget them, and they shall perish.

I believe we are responsible for the aging people who can no longer care for ourselves, and who live on the edge of life beyond our sight and sometimes, our hearts.

I believe I am  responsible for my dogs and cats, my chickens and sheep, my donkeys and my farm.

I believe our responsibility to others is as sacred as my responsibility to myself.

I am surprised again and again to see that these beliefs are far from universal, they are now controversial and rejected by tens of millions of people, including many people of faith, who once invented the idea of caring for others.

More than anything else, I believe that I am  responsible for myself. No one could save me, no one can save me again. That is up to me, that is my job, I am  the only one who can do it.

I am responsible for money – earning it, managing it, using it with foresight and restraint. I know what it means not to take responsibility for money.

I am responsible for loving my wife wisely and in a supportive and encouraging way. To love and be loved, I know I must take responsibility for myself.

Like me, my partner must be responsible for herself. And so she is. I think we are becoming prophets of responsibility together. In this way, I can possibly get there.