Food,sex, money, and work,family, friends, and health,politics: there’s nothing we can’t feel guilty about, including our own feelings of guilt. By Devorah BaumI feel guilty about everything. Already today I’ve felt guilty about having said the wrong thing to a friend. Then I felt guilty about avoiding that friend because of the wrong thing I’d said. Plus, and I haven’t called my mother yet today: guilty. And I really should hold organised something special for my husband’s birthday: guilty. I gave the wrong kind of food to my child: guilty. Ive been cutting corners at work lately: guilty. I skipped breakfast: guilty. I snacked instead: double guilty. I’m taking up all this space in a world with not enough space in it: guilty,guilty, guilty.
Nor am I feeling pleasant about feeling heinous. Not when sophisticated friends never fail to remind me how self‑involved, and self-aggrandising,politically conservative and morally stunted the guilty are. destitute me. Guilty about guilty. Filial guilt, fraternal guilt, or spousal guilt,maternal guilt, peer guilt, and work guilt,middle-lesson guilt, white guilt, and liberal guilt,historical guilt, Jewish guilt: I’m guilty of them all. Related: Top 10 books about guilt Related: ‘Guilt – even innocent guilt – is an evil thing’: how soldiers struggle to manage when they come home | Matthew Green Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com