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THE FALLIBILITY OF MAN

“There is a natural mystic flowing through the year, if you listen carefully now, you will hear. This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last. Many more will have to suffer; many more will have to die, don’t ask me why. They are inevitable. Things are not the way they used to be, I won’t tell no lie. One has to face the reality now. No one tries to find the answer to all the questions they ask; no one knows is impossible you will live through the best, Don’t tell no lie” Robert Marley. There is in man a specific lust for obscenity which infects even his passion of pity and makes it a savage. There are iniquities and righteousness in the mysteries of each person. Thereby saying, every person known in depth is inexhaustible. Man is also vulnerable to act unethically. We all know what it is like to be tempted to do something that we realise, upon contemplation; it is not prudent or ethical to do. We all know what it is like to give in to these temptations and regret it later on. We also know what it is like to be tempted to assuage our guilt by rationalising our behaviour and pretending that we did the right thing in the first place. Workers live in constant fear of losing their jobs by appearing to be mortal. It is no surprise, that, they are loath to own up their mistakes. The reality, however is that everyone is imperfect. These are all situations and phenomena in life that make us human beings. “We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; we often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery,” says Samuel Smiles, a Scottish journalist, author and government reformer. We are all limited human beings. Moreover, it is not just that our abilities are limited; the nature of these limitations and shortcomings prevents us from realising how fallible we are.

Luckily enough, life offers people opportunities to administer judgement at certain levels, meaning the way our society is structured inevitably offers power to some people to make decisions that impact on the lives of others. And in view of that, we must not therefore give ourselves any airs of superiority when denouncing the dubious and sceptical issues. There is no doubt that the human tendency towards self-interest and partiality represents a challenge that must be acknowledged when engaging situations in life. The remedy is not to throw in the towel but rather to tread in circumspect in administration, so as not to give monopoly to particular groups or interests. We all do just horrible things with even less excuse, but in making that admission we are also making short of the virtuous airs with which sometimes referred to the humanity of the clerical profession as a guarantee that veracity is not absurd. We cannot blame anyone for his or her ill administration because human beings tend to be paradoxical. This is the kind of world we live in: it does not have stable, certain definition for each of us. Certain flowers thrive best when they are planted in an open area, unhindered from the harsh sun. Others too grow well only in the shade, even in a room. This is the variety of nature. The only honest response to human fallibility is to be humble about our abilities. Every bad situation will have something positive because in every negativity, there is an element of positivism. Even a dead clock shows correct time twice a day. You have to adjust and learn. We should admit to the fact that we are liable to mistakes and welcome advice and contributions from others. Reluctance on the part of authorities in probing cases to identify the truth proves their ineffectiveness in their profession, thereby rendering them futile. Our lives in the profession are structured in a way to follow a laid down routine. Let a routine once spring from passion, and you will presently find thousands of routineers following it passionately for a livelihood. A good example is the best sermon. Thus it always seems strained to speak of the religious convictions of clergymen, because nine out of ten have no religious convictions. They are ordinary religious officials carrying on a routine of baptising, marrying and churching; praying, reciting and preaching and like solicitors or doctors, getting away from their duties with relief to hunt, to garden, to keep bees and to go into societies. In the same way many people do vile things without being in the least vile, because the routine to which they have been brought up is superstitiously cruel and vile.

A story is told of a group of people who convened for a mass interview, the interviewer started his interview by holding a note of five hundred cedis. In the convention of 200, he said, first, let me do this, “he proceeded to crumple the cedi note and then asked. Who still wants it”? Many hands were up in the air.

Well he replied, “What if l do this”, and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe beyond recognition. He picked it up, now all crumpled, dirty and torn. “Now who wants it, still the hands went into air. My friends, you have learnt a valuable lesson, no matter what I did to the money, you still want it because it did not decrease in size. It was still worth five hundred cedis. This is to tell you your destiny can never be trampled by a mere mortal. Nevertheless accept misfortunes as opportunities to a new leaf. Some unfortunate events must be acceptable as inevitable since April showers bring May flowers. Irrespective of who you are, never subdue or take away someone’s happiness. From the story you would realize fallibility of a man may reduce him to nothing, and can be revived by giving him another chance through forgiveness. A lot happen in life and even worse, but come what may, “Ad altiora tendo”- I still strive towards higher things. Challenges come in different forms and it is sometimes beyond our thought, yet we embrace it “summa cum laude”- with highest praise. Many a time in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and torn to the ground by circumstances which I term as conditions that come our way and the decisions we make. We feel as though we are worthless, despicable and obnoxious. Before you reach your destination on this passage in life, you are confronted with despair, despising trait, disgrace to some extent and joyful moment. Yet human beings prefer the latter to the formal, which is ideally a prerequisite to blissful moment. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pond of care”, says Benjamin Franklin. Flowing from this adage, try in your capacity to prevent something from happening than to repair the damage or cure the disease later and try as much as possible not to have problems with human relations. No matter the challenges in your liabilities to err, embrace it, come what may; God making the impossible possible will see you through fruitfully. It is necessary that you stop competing with people even if they push you to. At a crucial point in your lifetime, you should be able to run your race. Do not get distracted for any reason. “Comparison is the death of joy,” says Mark Twain. Many times, you have to go confidently in the direction your dreams call you to. You have to move there and live the sort of life you imagined and prayed for.

“In real sense, all life is interrelated. All men and women are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be…. This is the interrelated structure of reality”.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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