Most of the things I’ve been accused of, I did do. Not terrible things. Normal, living day-to-day things. I once got into trouble for walking into the larger-than-life, under construction, sky barrel that would later become the water tank for the little subdivision I grew up in. I wanted to hear how it would sound to yell inside the green tank. Would it echo? Fall flat? I must have been only 9 or 10. I got in so much trouble when my parents found out. It scared them to know where I had been, what might have happened. I did it, I did.
I wish I could think of something ruthless or edgy that I’ve been accused of. Or even done. I can’t. I’m mundane, run of the mill ordinary. Yet I’ve done some extraordinary things. I thought about this topic while driving through yesterday’s snowstorm. The 35mph winds nearly blew the pickup off the road. At one point, I had to do three of those turn-into-the-curve corrections when I hit a patch of black ice on a freeway curve. Thank goodness no one was near me.
On a snowy backroad, I started to wonder what kind of people get accused of things they didn’t do. What about the American who recently was found guilty of murder in Italy for a crime she says she didn’t do. Is she guilty? Innocent? Who are we to believe.
What about Tiger Woods. Is he being accused of things he did or didn’t do? Are all those women lying? Or is it his wife. I have to admit, when I heard about the early morning jog off the road, the crash and burn, I immediately thought “domestic situation.” And wondered what he had done. I noticed he seemed angrier this year on the golf course, less focused, throwing his clubs around. No wonder. Who can keep all that pent up inside?
I don’t think I have the kind of thick skin it takes to be accused of things I didn’t do. Maybe it led me to play it safe. It makes me seem boring, even to my own self. Where’s the drama? Like I said, when I was accused of things, I often did them. Have I ever lied about what I’ve done? Yes, on occasion in order to get out of a messy situation. But not as a rule of thumb.
I’ve been accused of being quiet, moody, crabby, over-emotional, shy. I’ve been accused of being fearful. Are those things true? At times. When I was in second grade Mrs. Hamrick took a ruler, bent the palm of my hand backwards so the inside of my hand was taut and facing up, and slapped my palm with a ruler. She did the same thing to my friend Melanie. We were cracking up in class over the word “smelly.” It was the way Melanie said “smelly” that had me in stitches in the middle of class.
Should I have been accused of laughing too hard, too loud, too much? I don’t know. But I was. And the ruler stung. I rarely got in trouble, rarely got a spanking. Why was I so goody two-shoes? Always running down the middle line, playing it safe. I don’t know. I prefer to be accused of being the good guy than the bad. Yet I like the tough guy rebel reputation. That just doesn’t make sense. Nothing makes sense in the world of false accusations. Nothing makes sense in the world of truth. Everything is subjective, even the way facts are presented. I’ve been accused of being too detailed and long-winded. That’s a good reason to draw this practice to a close.
If I took the time to list all the things I’ve been accused of over the years that I did do, it would fill another writing practice. Most I’m not proud of. I’m flawed, human. I used to be a jealous person. I feel like I’ve dulled down in the area of personal relationships. And that’s where all the drama is. I don’t step in the mire as much as I used to when I was young and trying to figure out what made relationships tick. I crossed boundaries, stepped through quicksand, threw a few tantrums. “Throwing a tantrum.” Where do you throw one. Out the window, across the river, slithering through the psyche of a loved one?
Pitching a fit. That’s an old Southern phrase. I used to say it. I hear it still when I visit the South. “Don’t pitch a fit, Shug.” Or “She’s fixin’ to pitch a fit.” I love that phrasing. There is something more colorful about the Southern dialect. Descriptive and loose. Uncontained, visual. You can not accuse Southern dialect of being stilted or canned.
Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do? Lawdy-mercy, no.
-Related to topic post WRITING TOPIC – 3 QUESTIONS. [NOTE: This is the second of three questions mentioned by actor and writer Anna Deavere Smith in an interview with Bill Moyers (see link). She talked about the questions in the context of interviewing people and listening to them. The three questions came from a linguist Smith met at a cocktail party in 1979; the questions were, according to the linguist, guaranteed to break the patterns and change the way people are expressing themselves. QuoinMonkey, ybonesy, and frequent guest writer Bob Chrisman take on the three questions by doing a Writing Practice on each.]
-Also related to posts: PRACTICE: Have You Ever Come Close To Death? — 15min (by ybonesy), PRACTICE: Have You Ever Come Close To Death? — 15min (by Bob Chrisman), PRACTICE — Have You Ever Come Close To Death? — 15min (QuoinMonkey), PRACTICE: Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by Bob Chrisman), and PRACTICE: Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by ybonesy)
Never? I wonder why. I don’t think I would accuse you of doing anything unless I knew it was you because you seem like such a nice person, open and honest. Yes, I know everyone has a dark side, but you don’t seem to have a side where you would do something and then not own up to it…kinda like you did in the write.
Makes me wonder why reactions to me are so different? Maybe I don’t want to go there.
Enjoyed the write.
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I also wonder what the real story is behind the American student in Italy, now in a jail in Italy. Knox is her last name, don’t recall her first. What happened, and what role did she have if any?
I thought of a guy I read about in The New Yorker who was recently exonerated after being executed on death row for igniting his home and killing his two daughters. The arson investigation was sloppy and misconstrued. He always asserted his innocence, and he spent the rest of his life in jail, and was executed in Texas. Bush the W was governor at the time, I believe.
The exoneration came because of the persistence of a woman he met through correspondence. The two fell in love, and she continued to push for the case to be reopened. Now, with arson investigation so much more sophisticated, they were able to prove that his story was not only viable but likely true. And that the patterns of damage in the house were, in fact, completely consistent with what he described happening and not with him soaking the place with gasoline and igniting it.
They were also able to show that the very first impressions of neighbors and others who were at the scene were consistent with the man being innocent, the way he tried to keep going back into the burning house, his horror and reactions. But then, as soon as word got out that he was the prime suspect, the people turned on him and their stories became different, how they now remembered him as not such a good man, even though they had all earlier stated that he was good.
It made me realize that nothing I’ve accused of really affected me in that sort of way. I guess that’s why I went the direction you did, QM, in feeling that in the end, I’m probably guilty as charged.
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[…] PRACTICE: Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by ybonesy), and PRACTICE — Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by […]
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yb, I doubt that we ever know the real story behind that murder case involving the American girl. It’s gotten out of hand now with the parents calling for the American government to intervene on the girl’s behalf. At least the young woman won’t need to worry about execution. They don’t have capital punishment in the European Union.
After attending the murder trial of a man accused of murdering an acquaintance of mine, I lost much of the respect I had for the judicial system. The trial wasn’t so much a search for the truth as a game involving the egos of prosecutors and the defense attorneys, a political game of sorts.
The murder victim was made out to be a promiscuous man who went out and picked up his murderer after a fight with his boyfriend. The accused (the victim’s boyfriend) was a professor and a good man who had cared for his dying father and his wacko mother. It made me sick to hear the character of a fine person (the victim) impugned and to watch his family react.
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Bob, how sad and disgusting that must have been to witness! What was the outcome? BTW, do I recall that you wrote about this trial? Is that something you’ve published or will seek to publish?
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The first trial ended in a mistrial, a unanimous finding of guilty is required in capital murder cases in the state involved. The second trial, which I attended, ended in a mistrial. The prosecutor didn’t want to pursue the case a third time, too costly. It didn’t help that a very conservative man took over the prosecutor’s office before the second trial began. The accused walked out of the courthouse a free man.
I can write about the trial (and have), but I wouldn’t publish the piece because I could be sued for invasion of his privacy by mentioning the name of the accused, even if I were to write a purely objective piece, which it would not be.
I have pages and pages of notes from the three weeks of the trial and I’ve typed them all into the computer. I have all of the information and may use pieces of it in fictionalized accounts of a murder trial.
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[…] PRACTICE: Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by ybonesy), and PRACTICE — Have You Ever Been Accused Of Doing Something You Didn’t Do? (by […]
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[…] PRACTICE — Have You Ever Been Accused Of Something You Didn’t Do? — 15min […]
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