Blamed For Living

A real body blow. The kind you don't see coming. For as obviously and quickly as the roles of villian and victim are being cast, it gives me pause that everyone is so surprised. Such bombshells usually suggest more complexity over more time than the damning indictments would lead one to believe.
Still a shock. Still painful, even from the sidelines. Who is safe if such things can sneak up on you unnoticed? "I'm in pain. There must be someone else to blame." Who isn't in pain? Who are these people who we think waltz through life and against whom we interpret our own lives as unsatisfactory.
It's enough that the surface we traverse is treacherous. We don't need to blame each other every time we discover that traveling involves stumbling. We might not need to take so many people down with us, if we felt it was safer to struggle along the way.