Nelson Mandela said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” We know the life Mandela lived, humbly may we all be sinners who keep trying. If Standards and Practices were to review my life, I doubt much of it would air, thus far life has been TV-MA, with a fair amount of R-rated occasions, neither perfection nor perversion is the goal. Most humans do something wrong, make errors, engage poor decisions, and these actions inevitably have an impact on other people, as we are all connected. So, like my fellow earthlings, I am mindful to keep my karma clean, and when I f*ck up, I admit error, apologize, and try to repair. There is no weakness in saying “I am sorry,” and meaning it, there is no weakness in admitting wrong doing, and learning from it. Yet, it seems we are in a climate in which inoculation from wrong doing, at all costs, trumps apology and accountability, this creates a karmic cluster f*ck for many folks. So, let’s release our wrong doings, let them out, confess, apologize, repair, and learn. And on the receiving end, be open to forgive, when space allows. We are in an era where cameras and yearbooks have the capacity to haunt a life, and extinguish careers and reputations, don’t cover-up your karma, clean your karma with good deeds and accountability.
In the modest opinion of this earthling, religion isn’t necessary for confession of a f*ck up (although law enforcement may be required). Free your soul, confess and clean the karma, I’ll get the “confession” ball rolling: I have cheated on math homework in school, I remained silent in the face of racism instead of speaking up for myself (shame), once consumed alcohol at age 17, openly laughed at blonde jokes, listened along with a group of girls in the dorms as one girl read the journal of her roommate without permission (it was wrong yet I listened because I worried what they would think if I left), said “yes” too many times to too many people just to avoid being perceived as rude or worse as an “angry Black woman,” believed what white people thought of me, shopped when I should have saved, argued with my husband in front of my child, stayed in a toxic friendship to avoid being alone, silenced my voice out of fear of being fired, and I watched Titanic although I did not like it (however, I adore Kate and Leo), the rest, as I mentioned, is probably R-rated. Energy keeps going, the thing is, we can pay it forward with good energy, or pay for it with bad energy.