Pine: The Weight of Self-Blame

Pine takes the blame home like shopping.

The weather

Traditional interpretations say self-reproach, the person who apologises for the weather. Responsibility is adult. Pine is responsibility without a statute of limitations. It will confess to other people's crimes to keep the story simple: I am the problem, therefore the world is solvable.

Beside the profile

Pine already lives in this house as a profile: “Self-blame.” Guilt that stays past the fact. Taking fault that is not yours. Responsibility and self-punishment are different climates. Bach filed it under Despondency or despair — for those in despondency or despair. The profile is the door. This essay is a longer walk around the same weather. Neither is a diagnosis, a product, or a treatment plan.

Remorse is a teacher. As a habitat it floods.

A takeaway

Sort the ledger. Yours / not yours / shared. If everything lands in yours, the ledger is a superstition. Elm sits near too-much-duty; Pine near too-much-fault. Different distortions of the same virtue.

Readers exploring this theme may also find neighbouring rooms interesting. Similar weather across traditions is not proof that one system explains another.