you would think as a teacher, and as a high school teacher in particular, I would’ve heard some truly great excuses in my day for a while. People don’t turn at homework, steal papers off the Internet, plagiarize, and things like that. But to be quite honest with you I’m at a loss. I feel like these days a lot of students don’t even bother trying to come up with excuses. They’re just perfectly content with saying “I didn’t do it“. But I think that also has to do with the state of education in our country today. You’re in America, education has become very much a customer service oriented business. And right now the students and the parents are the customers and unfortunately, the customer is always right.
I’m reminded of George Costanza, from Seinfeld. One of the key components of George’s personality on the show is that he would lie about anything. He won set an episode. “it’s not a lie if you believe it”. In fact, the other three main characters: Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer would often depend on George to contrive some sort of story to get themselves out of a jam.
I’m at a point right now where I’ve seen enough inherent thesis from people, it may be part of this is my age, but I’m almost at a point where it’s really too much effort to even call somebody out for their bullshit when they come up with a crazy excuse, they can see it. I could nod my head and say OK. It doesn’t mean I have to believe their excuse. It’s like that old expression. “excuses are like assholes: everyone has a woman they all stink“ I personally never cared for that statement. However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that it’s not untrue.
I don’t know about the best excuse I’ve heard lately, but the worst excuse I’ve heard recently was probably just before Veronica and I stopped speaking a little over a month ago. When I was trying to address the fact that I felt like things were “dying on the vine“ between us and that contacted really fallen off, she said to me “well, I was just trying to give you your space to do your thing.“ I felt like that was the most guy Ish thing as she could’ve told me. I didn’t call her out on it. I didn’t correct her, but we did stop speaking two days later and haven’t spoken since.
It’s not just in our relationships that we encounter ‘bullshit’—it’s in our environment, too. For a look at how I’m trying to make sense of the current state of our world, check out other post from this morning, ‘Rob on… Canadian wildfires‘, where I explore the fallout of our ‘new normal.
Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.
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- Rob Reviews: Project Hail Mary
- Why I’d Erase Tattoos From History
- Option C: The Analog Rebellion
- Rob on… Canadian wildfires 
- The Weight of a Final Excuse
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The article “The Weight of a Final Excuse” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.
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