Just the Same

I have found myself pondering success and failure this week as I produce my yearly analysis of exam results. Colleagues kept asking how I got on, and I felt the pedantic need to point out that I had not taken any exams. I also publicly reflected that after 20 odd years of watching results go up and down, it was pleasant not to have to account for poor results to some higher authority and I was glad that students had done well, but beyond that I felt there was little to say. I wanted to be able to 'treat success and failure just the same'. I am reminded of Simon Ponsonby's illustration of what it means to be dead to sin, where a monk is told to insult and praise a dead companion. Praise or criticism have no effect at all. I am not sure I've quite reached that point, but responding to exam results is at least good practice.