The most humbling words I know are "I'm sorry." Apologizing is painful, so I spend a lot of time making sure I don't need to do it.

But something is lost following that policy, first because it takes a lot of energy to make sure I'm always being a nice person, and second because I end up deluding myself into thinking I am one. I lose the opportunity to embrace, however uncomfortably, my humanity, my limitations. It would be better if I did have to say "I'm sorry," and fairly regularly, because not only would I realize my fallibility, but so would my friends and family members.

Text and image © 2010 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.