Accidents, Mistakes and Bad Choices

It amazes me the way we categorize things that we do in our lives. I've really been laughing to myself lately as I read the news. Maybe you've seen some of the articles too?

Mom rewards son with Pot

Sex with Pupil "Bad Choice."

I wonder if these people know who they are kidding? There things were not accidents and they weren't bad choices, they were mistakes, as in error, as in wrong!

So often we call bad choices, accidents, and mistakes, bad choices. But do we really believe that?

Let me explain.

A student takes four Prozac, that were not his, and when we catch him he says, "It was an accident." OK. So these four pills happened to be rolling along the floor and you just happened to trip and fall and your moth landed on the pills and they shot up into your throat and you had taken them by accident? Then the boy adds, "It was the wrong choice." Well, yes it was, but his tone implies that he was "confronted" with two options, take Prozac not prescribed to me or don't take Prozac not prescribed to me. However, as he went looking for the first option, there was no sign in the hallway advertising it, he only had the choice because he created it. That was a mistake. Except even the word mistake seems like a cop out these days.

"I just made a mistake." they say. Like mistakes are no big deal. Well sometimes they aren't. But sometimes they are. Also, I tend to think of mistake as more like, "I meant to write the word grass, but wrote gass instead." That's a mistake. "I meant to say 'Why thank you, Mr. Red Convertible for cutting me off,' but instead it came out, '***#$%$*%!$*#*!!!!'" That's not so much a "mistake," in my mind. Now, having been cut off by people in red convertibles, I'm not sure it's uncommon or uncalled for...

The point is, when people have accidents, make mistakes and/or make bad decisions, why do we always try to make it sound less than it is? Is that for everyone else's benefit? "They won't think this is as stupid if I down play it?" Or, are we lying to ourselves, "If I use words indicating this was really not a big deal than it isn't?" Does that really work?