Confidence Is not Competence

 

 

Confidence and competence:

Do not mistake the two,

Often, they have gone together

Just like a sock and shoe.

 

The sock before the shoe

Is the normal sequence

Thus, this appropriate analogy

Shows the difference.

 

Competence should come first

Followed then by confidence

However, the other way around

Causes accidents.

 

Just like driving a vehicle,

Competence must come first

And so, we develop the competence

And not the insane reverse.

 

Confidence before competence

Is flirting with disaster,

It is like a monkey handling a gun

He has not even mastered.

 

 

Think of a medical doctor

And the studies he undertakes,

The more competent he becomes

The less mistakes he makes.

 

 

 

Or, take an airline pilot,

Commuting to distant lands,

Though confidence is very necessary

Competence is a greater demand.

 

Too many lives at stake

Especially in large aircraft

Would you feel confident with pilots

Who just managed a pass?

 

 

That’s a rhetorical question

So, you need not respond,

I have already selected the answer

That both you and I stand on.

 

Competence and confidence:

Get the order correct

Or else like so many before you

You may become a wreck.

 

Many an accident occurs

When we exceed our skill set,

And if perchance our life is saved

We may incur great debt.

 

 

So, just a word of advice:

Please don’t mix these up,

When confidence exceeds competence

You could run out of luck.

 

Stewart Russell © January 18, 2025

 

What are the Odds?

 

 

Imagine a carpenter

Teaching a fisherman to fish

Why, that would be like Aladdin

Granting the genie a wish.

 

How could a lawyer

Teach a doctor medicine?

Or, how would an elephant

Teach a human to sing?

 

By way of a vote

In a General Elections

Professionals are advised

By politicians.

 

 

Selected to a Cabinet

By the sitting PM,

Their suddenly acquired expertise

Cause many a problem.

 

So, imagine a carpenter

Teaching fishermen to fish,

In plain Barbadian parlance

We would say “yuh wish”.

 

“He gaw be dreaming”

Or “he out in the sun too long”

Cause he definitely behaving

Like he is a circus clown.

 

What if I could identify

This “circus clown” for you,

Would you swallow your pride

And back down?

 

 

Well, it’s a historic fact

Most of you know about,

Some fishermen went out fishing

And no fish came out.

 

They must’ve been hiding

Cause they caught not one,

Maybe they fished so extensively

That all were gone.

 

A carpenter turned up

And told them what to do

But it did not measure up

To what they knew.

 

But to prove him wrong

They follow his command

Then they had to call out to others

To give them a hand.

 

The nets almost broke

With the weight of the catch,

And then the fishermen discovered

None was his match.

 

 

It was Jesus, the Christ

That created the fish

So, he did not have to close eyes

Then make a wish.

 

Much more than that

They became fishers of men,

It was the carpenter of Nazareth

That taught all of them.

 

More than a carpenter

More than a fisherman,

Jesus is the ever-living Word,

Aka, God’s begotten Son.

 

Stewart Russell © February 27, 2025

 

A Little Perturbation

 

Not a poem for September

And today is the fourth,

Now don’t misunderstand me;

This is not a boast.

 

Au contraire, my friend,

For I am somewhat upset

That four days have passed

And not one poem yet.

 

Maybe I am losing it

Though I’d hate to think so

For a distraction of such magnitude

Would be quite a blow.

 

I have been tempted

To write about the “Dems”

Since I am really concerned

About their problems. 

 

 

But after thinking a bit

I thought I’d rather not

For they are too much right now,

Embroiled in such rot.

 

I was tempted as well

To write about the “Bees”:

About their peculiar election

Disguised as democracy.

 

But quite reluctantly,

I decided against this too

For that sounds too much to me

Like “Okras in de Stew”.

 

Something is not right

If you see what I mean

So, I will take my own advice

And leave that scene.

 

So, here is something

I haven’t done in a while,

I will wish you a wonderful day

And finish this in style.

 

 

Have a wonderful day!

To everyone reading this,

And please be careful to avoid

All unnecessary risks.

 

Stewart Russell © September 4, 2024

 

The Visible Trap

When he said I do

He was done

He’d just begun

But the end had come.

In the euphoria of the moment

He enjoyed himself

Knowing only too well

He had invited ill health.

The warnings were there

The counsel was clear

But having made up his mind

He must serve the time.

What a beautiful face!

What a bewitching smile!

What a tender embrace!

What alluring guile!

She’s not for you

Advised more than a few,

All along he knew

She knew it too.

But she walked by his side

Back down the aisle

He was her prize

However they despise.

From a well-to-do family

He was well bred,

No doubt in her mind

He she would wed.

And that she had done

As she took their son

All was legal and right

He was hers from that night.

A life of misery ensued

Far beyond expectation

And though they lived together

There was chronic rejection.

  

But he had said "I do"

And "I do" he would keep

But his warning to the unwed

Is, “look before you leap.”

All that glitters is not gold

We’ve been repeatedly told,

Choose wisely and sleep well

Or with the devil prepare to dwell.

Samson you would recall

Saw Delilah as his all

But in her tender embrace

He had a terrible fall.

A face was all it took

With a bewitching smile,

Delilah had claimed her prize

And Samson was defiled.

Then came his end

Though with much consolation,

As the audience applauded

He effected their destruction.

He had walked knowingly

Into their clever trap

But after in his blindness

Reduced them to mere scrap.

Many are not as fortunate

As in the case of Samson,

They pay an inordinate sum

As a wife-demanded ransom.

Novelty soon wears off

The honey leaves the moon

And all that’s left in the marriage

Is a witch on a broom.

Memories don’t leave like people do

But some quickly disappear

Leaving regret and alimony

And a life of gloom and despair.

Stewart Russell © September 2017

A Wasted Life

Simon was like any other youngster in the district.  He played all the sports from football to tennis, went to school everyday, even worked well at school but refused to heed the advice of his parents and teachers.  Such advice was ‘Stay away from drugs’.  Ignoring this advice led him to a lifetime in prison.

Like most boys who went wrong, Simon got into bad company.  His ‘so called’ friends enticed him to smoke a ‘spliff’.  The high he received was nothing like he had experienced before.  True, he had coughed and spluttered the first time, but he soon got the knack of it.  From that first time he was hooked. He moved from marijuana to coke and then to crack. His aim always was to get a ‘high’ like the first time but it never came.

Soon he started staying away from school.  His marks at school went to the lowest ever.  He stole money from his parents or sold items that were not his.  He stayed out late at nights.  He cursed, he lied and he got into all kinds of mischief.  He began to look like an old man at age seventeen.  He was going down the road of most drug abusers.

One day, in the little district where he lived, the headlines of the newspaper read ‘Youth Takes Friend’s Life In A Quarrel’.  In a drug related dispute, Simon stabbed his friend.  His punishment was life in prison.  Simon’s was a promising life but marijuana and cocaine saw to it that the promise was not realized.

Stewart Russell © 1998