Excuses and Choices

©2019 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

Perhaps you saw this gem among the short news items some time back: “Ex-wife accused of identity theft blames dog for leading her astray.” In Arlington, Washington, an ex-husband found money was leaving his account without his direction. Police investigators determined his ex-wife was paying her expenses with the unauthorized funds. When asked about using her ex-husband’s bank account, the woman said her dog ate her personal checks and she had no choice but to use her ex-husband’s account.

Now let’s back up a moment. Most people have another pad of checks, because checks typically come in batches of 160 or more. So maybe the dog ate all her checkpads, as well as all the checks in her checkbook, which was lying within reach of the dog’s mouth (why?). This woman probably has a debit card and can make online payments. She didn’t choose to do that. Debit cards and emergency replacement checks are available at all branches of her bank or credit union. The woman didn’t choose to avail herself of those services.

So maybe there was a long holiday weekend involved and she couldn’t talk to staff at her bank. But hello! The banks all have 800 numbers with staff standing by to help customers around the clock. All right, maybe there was a storm and all long-distance phone service was down. In desperation, perhaps the ex-wife thought, Well, maybe I can use my ex-husband’s account. This leaves only four questions in my mind.

One: Why did she choose not ask his permission?

Two: How did she still know or have a record of his bank account number?

Three: With her own checkpads all destroyed (we posit), where did she get checks from his account?

Four: Was she planning all this in advance, and is that how she had the resources she needed to access his account? That sounds much like a group of choices.

According to the ex-wife’s version of events, implicitly, if she had fed the dog something tastier than checks, none of this fuss ever would have occurred. Oh, but that must be wrong, because then she would have had some responsibility for what happened and for resolving it. Now she is being investigated for identity theft and forgery. If she goes to jail, she will have many fewer choices. I hope she will see the irony.

Excuses are the stories people offer to keep from taking responsibility for their ineffective and “bad” choices. Life is our greatest experiment, with hundreds of choices to make each day. With the option to make many choices comes the responsibility of making those that will yield the strongest results.

Are you currently making any excuses for the way you are handling or not handling something? Why not quit your excuses and start experimenting so you can build up your positive lifestyle? And please, will you be sure to keep your dog and your checks completely separated?

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert with a natural healing practice. She also is an ordained minister whose passion is helping people find their Peace Within. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, available on Amazon, plus Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire. IPW is available on Amazon in full-color glossy format. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, also on Amazon in full-color. For full-color PDF versions, contact her office. For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.