Blogging My Responsibility

The Nation

When you are in charge of someone or have to take care of something, karma seems to remember you, suddenly. With responsibility comes catastrophe. Everything seems to go wrong. This is why I generally avoid taking up responsibilities for others. Yet, there are certain responsibilities in life, which, I’ve realized, I tend to ignore or neglect with joy.

Unlike most families, we don’t have a pet at home. There was once a cat who decided to live with us, but one morning he was gone. So, besides the wandering cats and squirrels, we haven’t had a pet for many years, which made me demand for one sometime last year. At one point, it did not matter to me what the pet should be, even a baby fish in a tank would have made me happy. My mother opposed the idea. The main reason was that I wasn’t responsible enough.

I agree with her. I tend to forget too many chores and tasks given to me. Post-its remind me of things I have to do. Sometimes, I have to remind myself to go through the post-its that seem to be everywhere. Yet, I make sure to take meals on time, I look after the few things I consider valuable in life and in general, I survive. Yet, was I really responsible? Could I take care of a living thing? There is so much to look into when adopting a pet; meals, hygiene, exercise and health. So I gave myself a challenge.

The plan was to take care of a plant, and if it survived one year, I was ready for a pet. Trying to make the task much easier, I decided to buy a cactus. I accompanied my mother to a plant show one evening and bought a small cactus. The lady who sold me the cactus instructed me that the plant needed very little water and was easy to keep alive. “Water it every other week,” she told me.

Since I had to be reminded of my ‘pet,’ I kept it on my dressing table and watered it every other week. Slowly, the watering became less frequent, and the cactus saw very little sun! It lived its quiet and forgotten existence for quite some time until I decided to show it more love. The cactus was then watered a little too much and was then left in the sun for too long.

Needless to say, the cactus soon died. It was yellow and horribly bloated until whatever life in it was sucked out. I had failed the challenge I had set myself.

Much to my joy, my mother bought a new cactus recently. I told myself that I was now responsible enough to keep the plant alive. Sadly, I still needed to restore my mother’s faith in me as she told me she didn’t want another cactus-murder under her roof.

Today, I don’t have a cactus or any other plant. I don’t have a pet. I am not responsible for anything that breathes. Yet, I needed to take care of something. I needed to make a promise to myself and stick to it. So I chose to do something I love; a blog entry a day. It has been a couple of weeks since I made this resolution and so far, my blogs have not been forgotten. Maybe I am finally the responsible person I wanted to be. Or maybe, this is the more likely option, I can’t be responsible for life of any sort. So I won’t make plans to adopt a pet. Instead I will be a crazy blog lady.

When you are in charge of someone or have to take care of something, karma seems to remember you, suddenly. With responsibility comes catastrophe. Everything seems to go wrong. This is why I generally avoid taking up responsibilities for others. Yet, there are certain responsibilities in life, which, I’ve realized, I tend to ignore or neglect with joy.
Unlike most families, we don’t have a pet at home. There was once a cat who decided to live with us, but one morning he was gone. So, besides the wandering cats and squirrels, we haven’t had a pet for many years, which made me demand for one sometime last year. At one point, it did not matter to me what the pet should be, even a baby fish in a tank would have made me happy. My mother opposed the idea. The main reason was that I wasn’t responsible enough.
I agree with her. I tend to forget too many chores and tasks given to me. Post-its remind me of things I have to do. Sometimes, I have to remind myself to go through the post-its that seem to be everywhere. Yet, I make sure to take meals on time, I look after the few things I consider valuable in life and in general, I survive. Yet, was I really responsible? Could I take care of a living thing? There is so much to look into when adopting a pet; meals, hygiene, exercise and health. So I gave myself a challenge.
The plan was to take care of a plant, and if it survived one year, I was ready for a pet. Trying to make the task much easier, I decided to buy a cactus. I accompanied my mother to a plant show one evening and bought a small cactus. The lady who sold me the cactus instructed me that the plant needed very little water and was easy to keep alive. “Water it every other week,” she told me.
Since I had to be reminded of my ‘pet,’ I kept it on my dressing table and watered it every other week. Slowly, the watering became less frequent, and the cactus saw very little sun! It lived its quiet and forgotten existence for quite some time until I decided to show it more love. The cactus was then watered a little too much and was then left in the sun for too long.
Needless to say, the cactus soon died. It was yellow and horribly bloated until whatever life in it was sucked out. I had failed the challenge I had set myself.
Much to my joy, my mother bought a new cactus recently. I told myself that I was now responsible enough to keep the plant alive. Sadly, I still needed to restore my mother’s faith in me as she told me she didn’t want another cactus-murder under her roof.
Today, I don’t have a cactus or any other plant. I don’t have a pet. I am not responsible for anything that breathes. Yet, I needed to take care of something. I needed to make a promise to myself and stick to it. So I chose to do something I love; a blog entry a day. It has been a couple of weeks since I made this resolution and so far, my blogs have not been forgotten. Maybe I am finally the responsible person I wanted to be. Or maybe, this is the more likely option, I can’t be responsible for life of any sort. So I won’t make plans to adopt a pet. Instead I will be a crazy blog lady.
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