A Ray Charles Quote with A Lesson Inside

Ray Charles Art Print
Gorsky, Vladimir
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(About his addiction to heroin) I did it to myself. It wasn’t society…it wasn’t a pusher, it wasn’t being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing. - Ray Charles

I have a love/hate relationship with the quote above.  I hate it with a distinct passion because it reminds me that one of the greatest talents our world has ever known struggled with a drug addiction.  That makes me overwhelmingly sad because I know it must have caused him and those around him so much pain and heartache.  When we’re a fan of someone, we want to think that their life was one long picnic - sadly for Ray Charles, it rained.

What I love about this quote - and, again with a distinct passion - is the fact that he doesn’t point fingers outwardly, whatsoever.  He points all ten of the talented wonders toward himself.   Would it have been a very, very, very difficult time to have lived as a black man when Ray did?  We know the answer to that, don’t we?  Can you even imagine the things he must have experienced?  Now, add to this the fact that he had a great deal of trauma as a child.  Things that happen to us in our childhood stay with us forever.  If we’re lucky, we find a way to make the memories aggreeable houseguests.   If we’re unlucky, they become ghosts that haunt our lives.  From everything I’ve read, I believe that Ray Charles’ house was haunted.

So, we have a man who has had unspeakable trauma, great losses, and has to live and work amongst a society that is still, for the most part, unbelievably intolerant and unkind to those who wear a different skin color.  Oh. Right.  He had to face all of this without his eyesight - in complete and utter darkness.

Did he have a hard life?  Without a doubt.  Did people take advantage of him?  Absolutely.  Was it fair that he had to lose his sight.  Not even close.  Yet, he didn’t place the blame for his addiction anywhere but on himself. 

The scapegoats were all lined up, but he sent them home.

 What if everyone took responsiblity for their actions - the bad ones as well as the good?  What if everyone stopped corralling scapegoats and began setting them free instead? I honestly believe if we all took more responsibility for what we do and for what we fail to do, we’d find ourselves in a better position to grow and improve.   I also honestly believe that that’s probably not going to happen.  Blaming circumstances and other people is just too easy.

Just something to think about.