Decades ago, while a young private in Basic Combat Training, on a cold, rainy day at the range at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, an old U.S. Army First Sergeant taught me that there is a difference between having a "reason" for doing something, and having an "excuse" for doing it.
We all have reasons for the things we do, and even the things we think. However, no matter how good our reasons are, to us, at least, very often they are pretty weak excuses.
An "excuse", as that old sergeant taught me, years before I became one, is something that actually does excuse you for doing whatever. Why you did it is just a reason. We can find reasons for just about anything we do or think, but, real excuses are hard to come by.
Won't tell you what my reason was that day, but, that old sergeant didn't accept it as an excuse, and, as I stood there getting one of my first of many chewing-out's from people with more stripes than me, in all honesty, neither could I. Got the lesson, and have passed it on a few times...especially after I made sergeant.
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