 Is
it hard to say 'I'm Sorry?'
My darling daughter,
A few days ago your friend Amali was here. She was in a very pensive
mood, which was so unusual that I asked her what was wrong. Apparently
she had had a terrific row with Raja, her boy-friend. What the argument
was about she herself was not very clear, but she had made some nasty and
cruel remarks. Hurt by what she had said and her refusal to listen to him,
Raja had gone back to his office and since that day she had not heard from
him.
"Why don't you telephone him and say that you are sorry for
losing your temper," I asked. "Why should I? It was his fault
in the first place," she said. "What does it matter whose fault
it was, you say you love him, you are longing for his friendship, the only
way you can get it back is to say you are sorry and mean it," I added.
Eventually Amali followed my advice and I saw her yesterday with
Raja, once again. But the conversation I had with her made me wonder daughter,
why are we so reluctant to say we are sorry. I read somewhere, 'an apology
is a friendship preserver, an antidote for hatred. It is not a sign of
weakness and it costs nothing but one's pride and saves more than it costs'.
I think the ability to say sorry is needed in every home! Daughter I often
think it is a false sense of pride that prevents people saying sorry, apologizing
for a mistake made. Why can't we realize that to admit a fault is not something
demeaning? To my mind to say sorry is a sign of strength - the strength
of one's character, the sure knowledge that admitting a mistake, or apologizing
does not detract from one's intrinsic worth. Would you agree with me? I
think you will, for many have been the times I have apologized to you for
losing my temper, or being irritable and you even from childhood would
come and say, 'Sorry,' so trustingly, especially when you had been naughty
that I could never really scold you. Perhaps, it is in the home that one
should first learn how important it is to say, 'Sorry' when one does something
wrong, or hurts another
Ammi
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