Admitting When Wrong

The other day I was listening to a Pod Save America podcast and they were speaking with the former Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, who has been responsible for the removal of the statues of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard as well as Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  This was/is something that some are very much against, but I was thinking about the many terrible things that are a part of our history. We can’t change what happened in the past, but we absolutely can change how we act/what we do today. I think that while it doesn’t excuse bad things being done, I think that learning from and changing after doing wrong, is the best way to try to make amends.  I really just wish that individuals and companies, organizations, countries, etc would be much better at admitting fault and learning from it.

While different and much less serious, this got me thinking about John and I.  We just bought a house and are in the process of trying to sell our condo, which has been really stressful, especially for John.  (He has really taken on a lot more than I with this whole buying/selling.) Being so stressed we’ve both been stressed and had bad attitudes at times.  We’re not a couple that fights, we don’t even give each other attitude very often. One thing though that I was recently thinking about though is that I am grateful that we are both really good about admitting when we were/are wrong.  If I am stressed and snippy with him, I will say, “I’m sorry for my attitude today, I’m just stressed” and John will do the same - “sorry I’m just so stressed/pissed off with this condo stuff.” I realize that this may not be the case for everyone, but for me, him just saying sorry and acknowledging his attitude enables me to just move past it.  I know that admitting fault is much harder for some than others, but ultimately it is something very simple and easy that we can do to try to right a wrong (or at least make someone wronged feel a bit better, etc.)