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Let Me Burry My Excuses

“Ninety nine percent of failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses” states George W. Carver.

Perfection comes to those who learn from their failures and mistakes and not from their excuses for perseverance, brings perfection. Practice makes thing perfect and everyone desires to be perfect in everything. Everybody wants to be a person of wit and wisdom. Many of us would like to be a scientist, a doctor, an engineer, an army officer and so and so forth. To achieve this stage of life we must strive to burry all our lame excuses and alibis. Notwithstanding our failures we should not give up, for success belongs to those who toil hard and judiciously plan ahead. It goes without saying that hard work never goes without reward.

The wild fire is destructive by nature, so does excuse. A celebrated writer John Manson inscribes in his book “The impossible is possible” that “Excuses are the tools a person with no purpose or vision to build great monuments of emptiness.” “I can’t” is the worst excuse and is the foremost enemy of success. Let us, therefore, stop saying “I can’t” and also stop “blaming others”. If we give in easily to excuses then we won’t be good in anything. To quote J. Manson, “You have never failed until you begin to blame somebody else.”

There is always an excuse and alibi saying that, I am perfect, and the others are not so perfect like me. We live in the illusion that we are perfect and this is the beginning of our downfall. We are accustomed to point at others with a finger and tend to justify ourselves as perfect. But ironically while pointing at others with one finger, the rest of the fingers are pointing at us.

Here is a short story. A man drives on a lonely road a midst a heavy rainfall. As he reaches a curve, he sees an old farmer surveying the ruins of his barn. The driver then stops his car and asks him what happened. “Roof fell in” said the farmer. “Leaked so long it finally just rooted through!” “Why in the world didn’t you fix it before it got that bad?” asked the stranger. “Well, sir,” replied the farmer, it just seemed I never did get around to it. When the weather was good, there weren’t need for it, and when it rained, it was too wet to work on!” So if we make endless excuses we too will be caught up in web of problems and troubles. Proverbs: 28:13 reminds us, “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.”

There are generally three types of excuses:
1.The excuse that we use to defend the truth
2.The excuse that we go against the truth
3.The excuse, which we neither defend nor go against it, but just emerge out of our habitual practices.

Those who use excuse to defend the truth are often regarded as perfectionist. They are always willing to learn and understand their failures. They know what Vernon Sanders observes, “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” But those belonging to the second and third category are not willing to burry their excuses. They think more about their false egos and capabilities without actually realizing that, the truth has to surface some day and when it emerges; their explanation will have no meaning at all.

Our lives are filled with excuses. The quality of our lives depends on the way we choose to live with the truth. Does the truth actually exist today? Yes it exists. If we wish that, the truth should rise in every situation of our lives then we need to burry our excuses.

Nowadays, we discover that, the truth is buried and the excuses give the opportunity to rise in every situation of our lives. Blames, accusations, corruptions, exploitations, extortions have become the order of the day.

I have come across several people who just keep covering up with one excuse or the other to justify their incompetence and satisfy their egos. This is because we live in a world where everyone wants to be a master and not a leaner. If everybody were to be a master then we will have no learners. Let us not postpone but do things one day a time so that we can transform the world we live in.

St Paul in his letter to the Philippians rightly reiterates that; “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you (Philippians- 2: 14-15) .” When a winner makes a mistake, he says, “I was wrong” when a loser makes a mistake, he says, “It wasn’t my fault.” Do you admit, “I was wrong,” or do you say, “It wasn’t my fault?” A winner explains; a loser explains away. Proverbs says that “work brings profit; talk brings poverty.”

We have many explanations for failure this is a sheer mechanism of escapism. “Excuses always replace progress.” says R. W. Emerson. We need to decide now about the excuses that we continue. We need to nurture hard work and perseverance if we want progress in society. If we are to strive for perfection then we need to acknowledge our failures and not our excuses.

Excuses should be reduced to ashes, not embalmed. A person, who justifies his or her own delay or excuses, is just uprooting his or her own future. If we deny a responsibility we are denying the very foundation of our own existence.

Death

              The most frightening word, which no one inclines to entertain with, is DEATH. Death is one of the existential questions, which everyone tends to avoid consciously or unconsciously. It is the end of life. It is a universal phenomenon and a law natural. But what is Death? Is death simple an end of life? Is death emptiness and nothingness? Why is death a mystery?


The normal understanidng of death is- if the heart stops breathing and if the temperature of a person slowly drops down to that of its surrounding, we pronounce dead. We have scientific knowledge from the very conception about life, but we are ignorant regarding to the signs of death. “It is when someone ceases to live. Medicine does not know what death is; it can only decipher its signs and apparent causes, but the profound reality of death escapes it. The pathological or natural mechanisms (aging) which result in the fact of death, are more or less explained, but knowledge goes no farther.” (Marc Oraison)


Scientists recognize three types of death that might occur during the life of every organism namely: ‘Necrobiosis death is an ongoing process of death of cell in every organism during life time. Nerosis death is the death of tissues. For instance during the heart attack some blood may clot up and cut the blood circulation some parts of the heart. the affected parts will die but an organism  continue to live. Somatic death is the dead of entire organism.


 “We mortal human die for the same metaphysical reason that our shoes wear out, mountains erode and solid iron bars rust: all material things eventually fall back- or disintegrate- into that out of which they are made.”(Cyril Desbruslais). Whatever existing matters will eventually fall apart or disintegrate- death. “What we call “death” or “corruption” is a breaking down of the being concerned into its elemental or molecular constituents and the recombining of these into other beings or another being.


I have no idea of the movement of my death, but am certain that it will happen.  And it is the only event in my life for which my certitude is reversed, bearing on the fact and not on the date. Death seems to be a personal event “The death of one gives rise to the birth of another that is the law of nature. This rise of one gives in to the fall of another that is the norm of being.” (Kuruvilla Pandikuttu)


The very fact that we are born is we are bound to die. If life could continue to live on without death; life and the society or universe at large would be in utterly chaos. We will never comprehend death. It is a mystery lying before us.


Throughout the history in almost all the religions, gods and goddess have been held responsible for death. But we now know that we are made up of matter and we will return to that matter when all the cells of organism die. Death is a law of nature.  But if I am by chance going to face it tomorrow, I am forced to ask, what is death? My reaction would be very obvious crying to God with a deep anguish, why have you done this to me? But, the very fact that we are born is we are born to die, which gives life for others.


Death is a presencing and absencing phenomena, the co-existence of the opposite like, light and darkness and good and evil.   I can imagine that I no longer exist or am death, but with certainty I cannot imagine that I no longer am. “Death in no way can I apprehend it as a non-being of me,” says, Paul Ricour. This is me a mystery. As a mystery death opens us to ever more depths reality of life and of non-life.

Neo- Headhunting

Headhunting is a practice of beheading, displaying, and in some cases preserving human heads for various reasons. The practice of headhunting originated in some cultures from a belief in the existence of a more or less material soul existing in the head. The headhunter sought, through decapitation of his enemies, to transfer this soul matter to himself and his community. Headhunting is thus sometimes found with certain forms of cannibalism as well as with human sacrifice.

The practice of headhunting was prevalent not only among the various tribes of the Nagas but also in other countries like China, Nigeria, Nuristan, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand etc. It could, therefore, be considered as practiced worldwide. ‘It has been associated (1) with ideas regarding the head as the seat of the soul; (2) with some forms of cannibalism where the body or part of the body is consumed in order to transfer to the eater the soul matter of the victim; (3) with phallic cults and fertility rites intended to imbue the soils with productivity,’ (Britannia Encyclopedia) and (4) with power, prestige, fame and glory. In short, it is associated with mortification of the rival, ritual violence, cosmological balance, displaying of manhood, cannibalism and prestige.

Headhunters were well trained in the field of headhunting. They were not only the bravest and the most courageous persons in the society, but also skillful and specialized in the specific field of headhunting. The specialized headhunters were very difficult to find in a society. Due to their specialization, experience and their prowess, they were crowned with power, highly respected and honoured in a society.

We see in history that every revolution does not burst out suddenly but evolves and takes shape over a long process. The rise or fall, merits or demerits of an event or revolution or reformation lead to a bigger one, a more complex event or happening, complicated yet better. So does headhunting, the old practice of headhunting - beheading the enemies’ heads, having emerged into new complex forms, which I would like to call ‘Neo-Headhunting.’

The complex forms of ‘Neo-Headhunting’ could be examined from two perspectives- the negative and the positive. The former is reflected and explained by the present social conflicts, factional clashes, tribalism, nepotism etc. that exist in our social fabric. The latter is reflected and revealed in our day to day experience of modern society, where human beings stop at nothing enslaved by the spirit of competition, greed for wealth and power, desire for position and status, abduction of person for monetary gains, ‘stealing’ of skilled and professional persons by agencies or corporations to throttle competitors and maintain monopoly etc. The underlying spirit is the same as that displayed by the old custom of headhunting: gain power, status and glory. While the old practice was rooted in social values for the good and protection of the society, the present practice is the reflection of deep-seated human selfishness and unquenched greed leading to gradual destruction of the society.

Gone are the days when our great grandfathers took part actively in beheading the heads of their enemies for countless reasons. With the advancement of modern science and technology, the age-old practice of headhunting is crystallized into neo-headhunting under various forms of seeking highly specialized personnel in every walk of life in the modern society. It has taken the most complex form in the corporate sector with the growth of various companies, associations, organizations, etc - both public and private. An agency or agent specializing in the recruitment of executives or highly skilled personnel in any field or job is neo-headhunting. No effort is spared in grabbing the best through offering of unreasonable salaries and incentives so as to weaken the competitor.

Specialized personnel seek for the highest post of office in any sector making the work easier for the modern ‘headhunters’. In modern world, agents, agencies and even companies become ‘New Headhunters’, seeking for specialized personnel for their growth and sometimes for their survival in the competitive world. This ‘New Headhunting’ has been experienced in every walk of life - education, research, business, industry, arts, games and sports etc. Every company or sector hunts for the highly specialized personnel for effective and smooth functioning, to maintain high status symbol and popularity, and finally make sure that the competitor is either weakened or made to close shutters.

Today’s world is a world of competition. Competition, whether healthy or unhealthy, constructive or destructive, has come to stay. One competes with the others for one’s own benefit, fame, glory, power and popularity. Various forms of competitions, especially the unhealthy and destructive ones, are nothing but the residual of the past practice of headhunting. Today, with headhunting firms are focusing on the domain of specialization and expertise in a particular field that increases one’s market value. One company tries its best to over power the other, or weaken the other or tries to become more popular than the other through new techniques and innovation, thus displaying the strains of the old headhunting. Today’s competition is rightly called ‘cut-throat’ competition where one tries to put the other out of business, just like finishing off the person by cutting one’s throat. Definitely, headhunting in the modern world!

The enemies’ heads are replaced by getting or grabbing of high position or posts, seeking money and power, wean away professional persons from competitor etc. In the olden days headhunters were crowned with respect, glory, honor and fame. Today’s ‘new headhunters’ are too crowned with money, power and position. The more a person specialized, the more he is crowned with and is sought by associations, companies, organizations etc. Such persons literally become a ‘prey’ to be ‘captured’.

Examining the present world will show us how the ‘New Headhunters’ hunt for the heads - for professional persons in every field. Football star C. Ronaldo is hunted by almost all the world’s biggest football clubs or associations; M. Dhoni in cricket, Angelina Jolie in Hollywood, Sharuk Khan in Bollywood are some of the examples of persons in great demand or persons who are ‘hunted’. Companies and agencies or clubs hire professionals and highly trained persons to hunt for talent and skill, just like the olden days warriors who were trained to be headhunters.

Despite the recession, the world keeps moving and companies are all still hiring, especially for the top positions. In a tough competitive economy, companies still need quality head-hunters. If you run a big company and need someone to do the high level work, say, a CEO, how would you go about recruiting for that person? You go searching, seeking, scheming. Exactly what the headhunters in olden days used to do! We have evolved from headhunting stage to that of ‘Neo-Headhunting’ stage. When rural illiterate people are ‘hunted’ to work in urban areas for a meager salary and living in inhuman conditions to satisfy the greed of the rich, truly the body is broken and the spirit crushed, as used to happen in the practice of headhunting of olden days. Belief in an ideal dies hard but takes new forms with the passage of time with new meanings attached. I am of the firm belief in this new web of headhunting that has become a part and parcel of our way of life.