Shauna Moerke is…

I’ve been swamped at work, I had to run errands, my teacher, mom, cat won’t let me, it wouldn’t really work even if I tried, that jerk Trevor at work is totally holding you back, and so on and so forth. Excuses. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately and how they get in the way. Excuses keep you from your goals, give you something to blame, and keep you from being the responsible adult I guess we are all supposed to be. Stupid society and its “rules”, “social norms” and “laws”. See! There I go blaming society. Excuses are too easy to use and yet ultimately unsatisfying, both for the person using them and the people on the receiving end of them. I mean, just because you have someone or something to “blame” for your inaction does that actually excuse or forgive it? I don’t think so. Forgiveness comes from the people you inconvenience or hurt, and even from yourself, but it most certainly doesn’t come from having a convenient scapegoat.

Not to say there aren’t legitimate reasons out there, but those aren’t really excuses are they? Excuses are ways to shift responsibility to something outside yourself, not a reflection of a real problem outside your control. Not making it to work because a blizzard shuts down the roads isn’t an excuse, it’s a reason. The trick is knowing when you are legitimately being held back by a reason or when you are holding yourself back with an excuse. Because reasons can be overcome but excuses, they never really go away as long as you keep making them. Just like Trevor, that jerk. He’s everywhere.

Note: This post in no way reflects my own laziness around updating, or lack of updating my blog. Not that I’ve been lazy… Uh… Damn that Trevor, he is totally holding me back!