Don’t Blame the Goat
Once upon a time, more than 3,000 years ago, there was an ancient custom in which an unsuspecting goat would be captured and brought before the religious leader of the day. The locals having all told their grubbiest and most grimy faults to the clergy, it would then be the clerics' responsibility to load this gullible goat with all the sins of the local community. The goat would then be led into the wilderness, carrying away the sins of the people and never to be seen again.
It’s where we get our old ‘scapegoat' term from. I get the reasoning, and it must have felt pretty good to the faithful worshippers of the day.
But there are problems with this system aside from the outrageous price of goats.
Sometimes there are things that we need to fix because we are the ones who actually made the mess in the first place. The goat had nothing to do with the relationship I have bruised or the word(s) I regret. Nope! I need to approach Billy Boggins, fess up, say that I am sorry and offer to buy Billy a bottle of his favourite beverage as a sign of my contrition.
Today, instead of loading the goat with all the wrongs and ills of our society, we’ve become pretty good at finding other (scape) goats. This class, this colour, this point of view, this party; you get the idea.
Instead of looking at our ‘goats’ and heaping on them, sometimes it’s necessary to own up to my blinkered view and look in the mirror. And when we gaze into the mirror for a while, not just the quick squeamish glance, I might discover a bit of a silly old goat who, through honesty and reorientation, can actually be made shiny and beautiful once more.