An Oops Document? You've got to me kidding me.

My husband and I refinanced our mortgage recently. If you have ever done this you know that there are a ton of papers to sign. Well, one of the documents was, and this is exactly the way it was presented to us, an “Oops Document”. It said that if the lawyer or the mortgage company made any mistakes on the paperwork that we would not hold them responsible.

HA! My husband and I paused, laughed out loud, and questioned the lawyer to make sure we heard her correctly. She confirmed that yes, it was “oops document”. We questioned whether we actually had to sign it and the kicker is that if we didn’t we couldn’t get our mortgage. That’s what they call “having you by the balls”. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

On the way home Tony and I laughed about this and we came to the conclusion that we are living in a sad, sad world there has to be a such thing as an “oops document”. Does anyone hold themselves accountable anymore? If you make a mistake, shouldn’t you own up to it?  Apparently, not.

We are living in a society where if I make a mistake, is not my problem. (See previous blog about that subject) Imagine if we all walked around handing out “Oops documents”?

An Oops Document……Good grief……..I think I will send one to my credit card company so they won’t hold me accountable for paying them back. Oh, and one to the credit union who holds my car loan for any and all future non-payments. Then, I will hand them out to my kids so that they can’t come back years from now and say that I screwed them up in anyway. My friends and family will all receive one also, because I don’t want to be responsible for anything I may say to them in the future that offends them. Hell, I’ll give them to my kids to pass out to their teachers so they won’t be responsible for any of the work they turn in. From now on I will not apologize for my mistake and then do what it takes to make it right, I will simply hold up my Oops Document.    

I am increasingly disgusted with the way our society, as a whole is heading, and this Oops Document only fueled my fury. Nobody takes responsibility for anything anymore. Everyone is out for themselves. Murders are up, robberies are up….why? Because there is a sense of entitlement out there that people feel they can just take what they want. I want to remain optimistic that things will get better, but it’s hard.

There’s an old Polish Proverb that I’d like to leave you with. It goes like this: If everyone swept in front of his house, the whole town would be clean. If we all stopped looking to blame someone else for our hurt feelings, or our inability to pay our bills, or our children’s behavior or grades, and took responsibility for our actions I think we could begin to restore our society. Maybe.