Thrown Under the Bus

“Ariel, listen to me: The human world is a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they’ve got up there!” (Sebastian, The Little Mermaid).


Do you ever “get thrown under the bus?”

Maybe that’s a phrase you aren’t familiar with. To be “thrown under the bus”, at least by my definition, means to sacrifice someone else, usually someone who is undeserving, to cover for something you have done or are thinking or something you’ve experienced in the past.

One day recently, I was thrown under the bus by two different people, relating to two different situations.

One person is a friend. The other person I only know by reputation.

One threw me under the bus to cover up something they had done.

The other person threw me under the bus because they were transferring their emotion for something in their past, that I was no part of, onto me.

Neither situation was pleasant. Neither enjoyed. And, quite truthfully, neither was deserved.

I long ago learned that you can only defend yourself so far. Before long, it appears you are protesting too much.

For example, someone says, “Do you still beat your wife?” How do you answer that question? If you say, “Yes, I still beat my wife,” you should go to jail. However, if you say, “No, I don’t still beat my wife,” it tends to imply that you once beat your wife.

You can’t win for losing on that one.

When you are thrown under the proverbial bus, you never really win.

In the first situation I mentioned above, I just took it and didn’t reply.

In the second situation, I told the person that it was best I not respond, because no answer would truly satisfy them.

That’s how I responded. Hopefully, I’ll continue to always remember that, at times, (maybe most times) it’s just best to keep your mouth shut and not reply at all.