What Would You Do Differently?

One of the writing prompts for NaBloPoMo is, "If you could redo one moment in your life, what would it be and why? How would it change who you are now?"

Certainly, there are things I'd make better if I could, choices that could have been smarter, impulses that would have been better suppressed, opportunities to be kinder. But there are very few, perhaps not any, single moments in my life that I think of as life-changing.

When "Sorry" Isn't Enough

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about how to apologize. One of the points in that article was that apologies are meaningful only if they are sincere.

One measure of sincerity is whether or not there is true remorse. Some people say they feel remorse, but what they really feel is just regret at having been caught doing something wrong. They feel bad for themselves because they may have to face someone else's anger, and there may be some kind of unpleasant consequences or a penalty to pay. Maybe they even wish they hadn't done whatever it was they did, but only because they don't like paying the price.