As a law student I read many cases about people suing because their feelings were hurt, suing because someone broke a promise or suing because someone made an honest mistake. I sometimes wonder whether all the legal nastiness couldn't have been prevented by a simple heart-felt apology --maybe accompanied by some roses too.
My friend, Matthew, passed this link along grouphug.us. It's a site for confessions, a sort of apology line. Here are some examples:
"I am utterly selfish. some part of me wants my friends to fail and get fat and be useless so I am better than them. I also take stuff that isnt mine and dont work at my job. I see everything as a competition."
"A few years ago, I fell pregnant and had an abortion. I lied to myself and everyone around me by saying it was because of medical reasons rather than through choice."
At first reading these confessions seems a bit of schadenfreude, an expression I just learned this week, "a delight in the misery of others." But the confessions make you more apt to apologize yourself or at the very least to recognize the harm you've done to others.
The radio show, This American Life, did a piece about an apology line in New York. The line was set up in 1980 by a man named Alan Bridge and lasted until his death in 1995. It's the first piece of radio that made me cry. This segment starts about 46 minutes into a provocative program about justice which includes a report on the Yugoslav war tribunal and an interview about truth commissions.
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