Reasons or Excuses?

What is the difference between a reason and an excuse? A reason is reasonable, relevant and is hence, acceptable. An excuse on the other hand, is something unreasonable and unacceptable. Why unacceptable? Most of the time, excuses can be prevented if more effort, sincerity and commitment have been made. 

I remember when I was in the choir. Whenever something unexpected cropped up, I always had to think hard for the proper thing to say, so that whatever I said could be accepted as a reason. If I didn't have a reason, or rather, if I could merely come up with an EXCUSE, I would just admit that it was my mistake and accepted the scolding. I wouldn't even dared to attempt to pass my excuse as my reason. That was how I was taught by Robert. Those years of character remodelling under him have taught me, among other things, to be reliable and responsible, so that there will never come a time when I need to find myself a reason to account for my inadequacy. 

And this is why I find it absolutely preposterous when people can come up with REASONS like "I'm late because there is a traffic jam", "I can't pass up my assignment on time because our lecture finished late yesterday and I didn't have time to do it", "I have to skip class tomorrow because I have to send my car for service", "I didn't do a good job on my presentation because I couldn't get connected to the internet" etc etc. 

I'm not insulting the people around me or YOU, should you have used those same excuses. I do, rarely, find myself mumbling those same excuses when I am caught in a desperate situation. It's just we have to bear in mind that there is never a reason good enough to account for our own mistake, incompetency and irresponsibility, although that doesn't mean we cannot be forgiven for those. But it does bother me when people voice out some pretty dumb excuses in such a matter-of-fact tone, as though, they are perfectly, sound reasons. That's what boggles my mind! They don't see the invalidity of their childish reasons.