For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       Giving it a rest     It's good for the politicians to get away on holiday in August. It gives them a rest from politics and it gives us a rest from the dullest show on earth: the blame game. I was talking to an elderly neighbour recently who wants me to write her life story. I asked what would be the highlight if I did. 'Evacuation' she said without hesitation. Georgie was evacuated from London in 1941 when she was three years old. The bombs were falling – a blitz worse even than recent events in the capital - and she was sent to Hitchin where her aunt and uncle lived. This was good news for Georgie for despite her age, she knew she did not like it at home. She was happy in Hitchin, where she chose to live even after the war was over, hoping she'd be adopted; but her aunt and uncle were strict. She had to go to church every Sunday, though the smell of the incence made her feel sick. And if she had a tantrum she had to sit on the stairs, which were closed off from the front room by a door. This felt very harsh. If the stairs didn't work, she was sent outside. She had to go down to the bottom of the garden, stand by the shed and 'shake Hitler off her back.' Her aunt and uncle would watch from the window as she walked. When she reached the shed she literally had to shake herself, as if trying to dislodge a clinging man from her back. With Hitler dispatched to the nettles, she would then return to the house, her tantrum subsiding. On the Day of Judgement, Adolf Hitler must take responsibility for many things but Georgie's tantrums will not be among them. Insisting Hitler takes the rap for these is to mimic the Nazis in their absurd blaming of the Jews for 1930's Germany. Blame, however, is far too primal to be concerned about such niceties. Blame is born out of panic and fear so do not expect it to be reasonable. The opposite of apportioning blame is taking responsibility. Taking responsibility is a strong river of energy in us, driving our truest self. When we blame another, we direct water away from this big river and like a mill in a drought, our true self is enfeebled. If blaming others is our normal way, our powerful waterway within is reduced to a weak trickle with no energy to drive life, virtue or good action. Taking responsibility is the act of the fearless; blaming others is the act of the frightened and there's no pure energy there. This is why it's good for politicans to get away on holiday. It gives them a rest from diverting water from their river of life; and gives us a rest from role models who, in always blaming the other party, bring out the fearful and primal worst in us. More writings © Simon Parke