From: gipsieee	Date: November 7th, 2006 03:03 am (UTC)		(Link)

abdicate: give up, such as power, or duties and obligations
obligation: the state of being obligated to do or pay something

... never mind, I can't answer your implied question in a way I'd be happy to have up in a public forum. For my curiosity, these definitions seemed reasonably in keeping with my understanding of the terms used, do they map to yours as well?

From: j5nn5r	Date: November 7th, 2006 03:42 am (UTC)		(Link)

obligations to stuff, clutter, junk - sure.

obligations to people? not easily.

	From: wyckhurst	Date: November 7th, 2006 03:48 am (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, I think I'll just leave my kids to fend for themselves, maybe even drop them in the middle of the woods. Because you know, it's abdicate my responsibility day!

	From: dhole	Date: November 7th, 2006 09:33 am (UTC)		(Link)

I can sort of kind of see ending responsibilities as a worthwhile sort of activity, particularly those sort of responsibilities that were taken on under circumstances that have changed -- being a treasurer of a club that you don't participate in much anymore, that sort of thing. At a minimum, thinking about what responsibilities one has, how they arose and whether they're worth maintaining can be a good thing to do every once in a while. But responsibilities that are better off being ended have to be ended gracefully. Abdicating responsibilities? That ain't right.

	From: omahas	Date: November 7th, 2006 04:15 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Someone else already did a good job of defining the terms.

As far as doing so, you, I, and everyone else have *every right* to abdicate an obligation to an activity or a person if they so choose. I have done so, a number of times. I insisted Elf do so (and he finally did, but not until after it was too late...you know who I'm talking about).

We do not make obligations with the understanding that they will last for the rest of our lives, or that they will even last for the length of the promise we made to perform them. We *hope* to continue performing the obligation, but there can (and for me there did) come a time when changes to our lives force changes to our ability to maintain our current obligations.

I sat down at the beginning of this year and wrote out all of my obligations. I noted down their order of importance to me, their order of importance to the obligee (in my perception), and what the deadline of the obligation was, if there was a pre-set one.

Then I decided which obligation I felt needed to change somewhat, which ones I needed to end, and which ones I felt needed/could/should continue. I then talked with the obligees and discussed the issues so that we could both come to an agreeable decision.

Considering that I was drowning in obligations (I have problems with saying "no" that I've been working on) it was very necessary. And that is how you "abdicate to an obligation".