An Observation...

[itzwicks]

Personal responsibility is just that - personal. You create your own future based upon the decisions you make, as well as the decisions you decline to make. Of course, to a lesser degree, your future is also determined by decisions made by others on your behalf. Rather than bemoan the options that you don't have, work with relish upon the options

Comments

[athena_jess]

This makes me think of a great scene in Clerks

RANDAL
You should shit or get off the pot.

DANTE
I should shit or get off the pot.

RANDAL
Yeah, you should shit or get off the pot.

DANTE
What are you talking about?

RANDAL
I'm talking about this thing you have...this inability to improve your situation in life.

DANTE
Fuck you.

RANDAL
It's true. You'll sit there and blame life for dealing a cruddy hand, never once accepting the responsibility for the way your situation is.

DANTE
What responsibility?

RANDAL
All right, if you hate this job and the people, and the fact that you have to come in on your day off, then quit.

DANTE
As if it's that easy.

RANDAL
It is. You just up and quit. There are other jobs, and they pay better money. You're bound to be qualified for at least one of them. So what's stopping you?

DANTE
Leave me alone.

RANDAL
You're comfortable. This is a life of convenience for you, and any attempt to change it would shatter the pathetic microcosm you've fashioned for yourself.

DANTE
Oh, like your life's any better?

RANDAL
I'm satisfied with my situation for now. You don't hear me bitching. You, on the other hand, have been bitching all day.

DANTE
Thank you. Why don't you go back to the video store?

RANDAL
It's the same thing with Veronica.

DANTE
Leave her out of this.

RANDAL
You date Veronica because she's low maintenance and because it's convenient. Meanwhile, all you ever do is talk about Caitlin. You carry a torch for a girl you dated in high school-in high school for God's sake! You're twenty-two!

DANTE
Leave me alone.

RANDAL
If you want Caitlin, then face Veronica, tell her, and be with Caitlin. If you want Veronica, be with Veronica. But don't pine for one and fuck the other. Man, if you weren't such a fucking coward...

DANTE
...If I wasn't such a fucking coward. (chuckles) It must be so great to be able to simplify everything the way you do.

RANDAL
Am I right or what?

DANTE
You're wrong. Things happened today, okay? Things that probably ruined my chances with Caitlin.

RANDAL
What? The dead guy? She'll get over fucking the dead guy. Shit, my mom's been fucking a dead guy for thirty years; I call him Dad.

DANTE
Caitlin and I can't be together. It's impossible.

RANDAL
Melodrama coming from you seems about as natural as an oral bowel movement.

DANTE
What do you want me to say? Yes, I suppose some of the things you're saying may be true. But that's the way things are; it's not going to change.

RANDAL
Make them change.

DANTE
I can't, all right! Jesus, would you leave me alone? I can't make changes like that in my life. If I could, I would-but I don't have the ability to risk comfortable situations on the big money and the fabulous prizes.

RANDAL
Who're you kidding? You can so.

DANTE
Jesus H. Christ, I can't!

RANDAL
So you'll continue being miserable all the time, just because you don't have the guts to face change?

DANTE
(sadly) My mother told me once that when I was three, my potty lid was closed, and instead of lifting it, I chose to shit my pants.

RANDAL
Lovely story.

DANTE
Point is-I'm not the kind of person that disrupts things in order to shit comfortably.