Pity and scorn

It's so easy to run to others. It's so hard to stand on one's own record. You can fake virtue for an audience. You cannot fake it in your own eyes. Your ego is the strictest judge. They run from it. They spend their lives running. It's easier to donate a few thousand to charity and think oneself noble than to base self respect on one's standards of personal achievement. It's simple to seek substitutes for competence - such easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity. But there is no substitute for competence. You can profess ambition and effort but your incompetence will drag you down. You cannot replace your ineptitude with mirages of vision and leadership. They are often stubborn. They refuse to acknowledge perfection. Your obstinacy will be your undoing to worthlessness. Look within and your soul will be the arbiter, you cannot seize or insist on respect and grace, you cannot claim what is not rightfully yours. There is a place for everyone in the world - understand this. Or you will only bring upon yourself pity and scorn.