Giving credit where credit is due has most likely been a major tenet of being a decent human since the dawn of human realization that being decent was the golden ticket to their prospects of surviving and thriving amongst other humans.

In that regard, a sure way to miff other humans is to take all the credit for something positive that wasn’t all your doing, or worst of all, wasn’t your doing at all. This failure to give credit where credit is due will quickly distance you from the helpful and willing assistance of others.

If you are the boss, or someone deemed important for whatever reason, some relegated to your circle of selfishness may tolerate this social taboo, but it will most likely garner mere compliance rather than genuine commitment from those that choose (or must) remain associated with you for whatever reason. So it goes.

On the flip-side, taking all the credit for a major debacle that wasn’t all your doing, or possibly not your doing at all, is often regarded as downright heroic and espoused as “taking one for the team” or “falling on the sword”.

Very little of what we accomplish in life is entirely accomplished with our own steam. Many people, many circumstances, and a load or two of dumb luck have more than likely provided some measure of the fuel that has moved us down the tracks towards our accomplishments.

Be grateful for that fuel, be gracious in your use of it, give credit where credit is due and that fuel will infinitely regenerate for use by yourself and other decent humans.

The importance of the credits that roll by at the end of a movie became much more apparent to me recently with the release of the movie Nomad Land. When the movie ended my wife and I sat quietly in the back of the theater as people shuffled out, and waited for credit to be given to someone we know. Someone that we have watched diligently move towards that which moves her and that which she finds meaningful.

As “Camera Department Assistant: Sierra Ellis” rolled by my eyes unexpectedly got a bit misty and I quietly choked out, “there she is”. There she is…our daughter, one name rolling by amongst the names of many, getting credit for the things they did, the individual things that positively contributed to the collective.

It was a banner weekend for the Ellis ladies. Sierra rolled in the credits of a successful movie, and a photo Dawn took won first place in the Amateur/Hobbyist division of this year’s Dahl Mountain Photo Exhibition here in Rapid City.

As an exemplar member of the “decent human” tribe, Dawn was very quick in making it known that the credit she was given by the Dahl Fine Arts Center for her photo did not belong to her alone.

Grateful, gracious, and giving credit where credit is due. Roll with it. Who knows how far it’ll move you?