Debt and responsibility

There may be an end to debt, but no end to responsibility. 

There are some people to whom we feel indebted for some good done to us. Some of these debts are so profound that we feel they can never be fully repaid - like to our parents, our guru etc. Others are mentally "paid off" if we do some service in return. 

Responsibility is a feeling from within, which will be there even if we have not received any material help from them that can be accounted - like to our children, our aged parents, spouse, close relatives, best friend etc. It is more a matter of feeling, as if we have invested a bit of our own self in that person, and in taking care of them, we take care of our sense of well-being as well.

Claim - don't blame

An event happens because a previous event has happened. Can anything ever happen in isolation? Like links added in a chain, a string of events uncoil into history.

Any point in the chain can be conveniently pointed at as a cause for everything that followed. That is how the blaming game goes.

Somewhere I have also contributed to the chain. For me, the only thing worthwhile judging is THAT link. That is the only link whose intentions I had some knowledge of. Did I act with the best of intentions - for the overall good for a long period of time? Or was it for a short-term comfort?

The only person I have a right to question is me. Did I act responsibly?

Incidentally, one of the best definitions of responsibility is: "Responsibility is ........ whatever is in your power to do."