I’ve used that phrase 2 or 3 times in the last 24 hours.  ”You owe it to yourself”.  Mostly out of habit, though it was used intentially in place of other phrases.  However, I just re-read my earlier post about the Town Hall for Hope, and realized my recent excessive use of this phrase.  This realization came with some self-analysis, of course.

What does this phrase mean when we use it?  We’re implying that a debt exists, as you can’t “owe” something that doesn’t include a debt of some kind.  Whether that debt is currency or something else doesn’t matter.  It’s still implies a transaction has taken place and you haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain yet.  Thus, debt.

But how can you be in debt to yourself?  If you own yourself, as we believe in this country that you do, and any debt to yourself implies a transaction with yourself, how can you have a one-sided transaction with yourself?

We have a phrase in the world of computers and blinking lights called a “technical debt”.  A technical debt is a debt which you rack up with yourself by not being diligent about how you do your work.  If you don’t document properly or often enough, or you cut corners with functionality, you are building up a technical debt.  You will be forced to repay this debt later, with interest, through the difficulties your lack of documentation brings, or the bugs your corner cutting introduced.  Thus, the debt to yourself exists because it is a liability (in the accounting sense) - much like credit card debt, it will eventually prove a major weakness when trouble comes knocking.

You can be in debt to yourself by creating situations in which you leave loose ends or openings for trouble to expose your weaknesses.  If you see these unpatched holes in your life, you are just racking up interest by procrastinating on the maintenance.

Back to the topic at hand, regarding my usage of this term “you owe it to yourself”.  To answer my line of questioning: while not strictly a debt of work left undone, the debt we create with ourselves shares the same consequence - it will prove a liability when trouble comes knocking.  In the case of politics, the debt we create is a debt of ignorance.  The currency is knowledge.

“You owe it to yourself” means you need to repay your ignorance debt with truth and awareness.