I'm Only Human

A plaintive cry of the lost and languishing is: “I’m only human!” 

This declaration is supposed to cover and excuse limitless breaches of due diligence.  

So it was with the Woodford County Clerk:

Dateline: October 9, 2013 [Lexington Herald-Leader]

“The Dec. 31, 2012 [Woodford County budget] settlement submitted to [State Auditor Adam] Edelen’s office ‘was not complete’ and was not mathematically accurate ... the audit noted ‘multiple errors from failure to post transactions, transposition of numbers, erroneous postings, and multiple mathematical errors between ledgers and financial statements.  As a result of such errors, the receipts ledger was understated by $12,684 and the disbursements ledger was overstated by $196,299.’” 

These are not trivial – “I’m only human” – oversights!  While math may not be “your thing”, there is no excuse for living 20+ years on the planet and not being able to put proper numbers in their proper place and adding and subtracting accurately.   Checks and balances are allowed – even double-checks, and encouraged, and, in this case, required. 

Question: If one “human” [auditor] can identify an aberration, does it not also stand that another “human” [county clerk] could, as well (or perhaps even better, since the county clerk had the raw data and was most familiar with the records and the auditor had to comb through unfamiliar records)?

One of the things that “Being only human” includes is the capacity to adopt both internally and externally applied EDIT FUNCTIONS.  In fact, adoption of edit functions is a mandatory part of “being human” – so much so that an edit reference source – a “conscience” – is hard-wired.*  But a complete portfolio of edit functions has to be learned. 

Self-editing is crucial.  A sound and sophisticated portfolio of self-edit functions is, in fact, required to realize maximum human potential.  A brief check of daily news delineating the rise and fall of individuals across the entire spectrum of human engagement will show a direct correlation between applied self-edit capacity and outcomes realized. 

So here’s the challenge for today: Aggressively cultivate and apply your edit functionality – particularly your self-edit functionality – for optimal matriculation in the world at large.  It’s one of the most essential components of your Life Mastery survival kit.  Quartermaster 

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*NOTE:  Some humans are born with faulty wiring.  Others, through medical mishaps, do not have the full capacity for comprehensive edit functionality.  These – and more subtle limitations, which include a warped, infantile, atrophied or neglected conscience – range from mild to severe handicaps.  The latter are extremely dangerous and detrimental conditions, generally requiring exhaustive external supervision, and frequently ending up in institutionalization.