CENTER POINT
THE CENTER FOR SELF-CHANGE NEWSLETTER

Vol. I, No. 5- MAY, 2007

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE THE IDENTIFIED GOAT

J. Kingston Cowart

The Israelites used to drive a goat out into the wilderness once a year believing that it would carry with it all their sins.

Every now and then any one of us will find ourselves in a situation where we have somehow become identified as the goat - the one selected to be blamed for something - or many things.

Some of us may actually have been the identified family or peer group goat for many years.

When that happens we easily develop a habit of blaming ourselves for everything that is less than perfect.

Even without all that, it's easy enough for any of us to goat ourselves over things from time to time.

Here is my own recent take on that.

This issue of Center Point is late. It's the May issue and I'm sending it out a few days into June.

That's terrible!

1) I've been doing other things. 2) I didn't know exactly what to say this time.

That's awful! No excuse!

I'm a goat!

The minute I realized I was thinking that way, I remembered this story about what a goat is really capable of.

You see, one day a farmer’s goat fell down into an old dry well. It bleated for hours.

The farmer got frustrated trying to figure out what to do. He become more and more annoyed.

Stupid goat! Always into something! Won't shut up!

Finally he decided the goat was too much trouble - and the well needed to be filled in anyway.

So he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him shovel dirt onto the goat.

When the goat first understood what was happening, it felt abandoned and betrayed, lonely and helpless. Other goats gathered around, talking among themselves about what an idiot he was to have gotten himself into that well to start with.

Hearing them, he even began to blame himself for what was happening to him.

He wanted so badly to get out of the well and escape to the safety of his pasture. But he couldn't. He was down in a well being buried alive. He felt lying down and giving up.

Then he had an insight - one of those great but simple revelations that change our lives. And he started doing the only thing he could.

He quit worrying, blaming himself, bleating in fear and sorrow - and got down to work making the very best of things right where he was.

The farmer and his neighbors were working, too. They kept their heads down and shoveled and shoveled and shoveled.

Then one of them looked up and saw the goat standing at the top of the well, staring at them.

Astonished, they soon realized that he had been shaking off all the dirt they dumped on him - and using it as higher ground to stand on.

He would shake it off, stand aside, and then step up.

That's all it took.

And that's all it took for me, too.

There I was, down in the well, worrying about being late with the newsletter and blaming myself for being such a goat.

I was in danger of getting buried down there - getting farther and farther behind.

This is just the sort of thing that can sometimes start a cascade of anxiety, worry, confusion, and situational depression.

Then I remembered this story.

It's true, isn't it?

All you have to do whenever you are the identified goat - whether it's you or someone else who's doing the blaming - is this:

Shake it off ...

Stand aside ...

And then step up.

It's far better than getting buried under all that blame and worry.

So here's the newsletter - no later than it is.