Over the past few days, i have been reminded of an anecdote that one of my high school teachers had shared with me many years ago. It had to do with excuses. His position was that under no circumstances would he accept an excuse for being late to class, absent from class, or why an assignment wasn't turned in on time. He would however accept a reason. He said this because he believed that "a reason is the truth and an excuse is the skin of the truth stuffed with a lie". And so up until recently, I had only thought of that statement in terms of the things that people say, but I have now looked at that statement in terms of who people are.
You see, sometimes we can accept people at face value, what you see is what you get. Their actions, their speech, even their lifestyles are a true representation of who they are. Whether they're good or bad, they're the real deal, not a fake. On the other hand though, you have people that have this beautiful exterior and present themselves as good and wholesome. Yet just underneath the skin they're stuffed with lies and deceit; pure evil. And unfortunately, most people will never know what lies beneath the surface.
So I guess my advice is this: Be genuine, not a fake.
