Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: Can I go a whole day without blaming others?

I think this one needs some subtlety. Blame, I find, is generally a useless game. When you’re talking about a problem when you have a meaningful input into a solution, it actively takes mental energy away from solving the problem to spend the time instead blaming someone. Blame doesn’t solve anything.

But accountability isn’t blame. Calling someone to account for something that could have been done better with a focus on how to fix the issue this time or next time isn’t blame. That’s improvement. And it can be done without putting people on the defensive by focusing on the problem at hand, not the other person.

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This is the point during the siege where you peer cautiously over the bastions. You know the enemy hasn’t left, but they seem to be farther away. Maybe, if you’re careful, you can go about a few of your regular activities, but always with the ear cocked to the sound of incoming bombs…

I went to downtown Toronto for an SCA meeting today, at the same coffee shop where I last went to a meeting back in February 2020. I’m of course not working downtown right now, so I got to experience rush hour traffic (not quite back yet to its old level, but still not nothing.) I got to wear my embroidered cat vest in public. About ten folks showed up, including a couple of people we’d only met virtually. It was nice. We’re doing it again next week.