I’m Sorry, and I Really Have to Say This, Thanks

We are constantly saying Sorry. Do we mean it, and if so there shouldn’t really be a need for a second apology for the same offense? Right?

I'm Sorry, and Thanks. Pixabay Courtesy of Ben_Kerckx

We say Sorry in a hundred different ways. Sorry I took the last piece of banana loaf but... Sorry I was late but... Sorry I spent the money but... Why do people add the “But”? Please don’t justify. Please don’t make excuses. Please explain WHY you’re Sorry.

Like many of you reading this, I learned about the shallowness of Sorry for a long period of my life. If you’ve ever been the recipient of this kind of Sorry, you too will remember those circumstances. Many times you would have heard it through the speaker’s bashfulness, their tears, their supposed remorse.

Yes, there are people who feel that their Sorry is all that's needed.

How many times should you apologize?

How many times do you think a person should say “I’m sorry”? Does a time come when you should realize that this person is just not willing to hear your apology?

I have been in an interaction with someone who seems unwilling to accept my apology. As our initial conversation was six weeks ago, I am uncertain as to the specific words used  and to how this misunderstanding took flight. What this person heard and what I meant do not jive, because I know better than to give her that response. The information she heard me say was incorrect, I know that, and she knows that too.

When she first confronted me with this, I apologized as the information she heard me say, was indeed wrong. In that conversation, I believe I apologized twice. She responded again, her anger was not yet diffused, and I was willing to let her have the last word thinking that this would be the last of it.

Two weeks later, this woman brought the situation up again with someone else.

 Do you know someone like this? Are you this someone? How willing are you to accept that you and everyone else in this world, is not perfect? We are all ruled by excitement on an upcoming trip, fatigue, ill health, children/partner problems, and lack of coffee. If we do expect perfection from others, how merciless might we be with ourselves?

 

“I was wrong, I made a mistake.”  Say it and mean it, or accept the apology when offered. And then for goodness sakes, let it go and move on.  

If we do expect perfection from others, how merciless might we be with ourselves? (Click to Tweet)