Thursday, March 31, 2011

Making amends

Disclaimer: I’m not an alcoholic although I am the daughter of one. So any familiarity I have with the 12 steps is once removed and not from actually working the steps. They've always made sense to me, though.

OK on to what I'm trying to say.

When I was young and stupid, I didn’t always treat people very well. More to the point, I know I hurt several badly by my actions and I’ve regretted it over the years. Keep in mind these are not people who deserved bad treatment or anything; in all cases my behavior was a result of my own screwed up self. Mostly I drifted away from them after my not so good treatment because of normal life—I got out of the Army or I moved away or whatever.

But I’ve ended up reconnecting with a couple of them through Facebook, and I’ve had a chance to apologize for my behavior and how I acted, no excuses, no justifications, just the apology and a request for forgiveness. In all three cases, it’s been graciously forthcoming which while not entirely unexpected is still pretty nice.

So in addition to getting to find out the rest of the stories of people I didn’t behave badly with, I’ve also been able to make amends with a few that I didn't do so well with (man, that was an awkward sentence). That’s not half bad for social media.

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