Today, while crossing a zebra crossing, a man in a white van failed to stop and allow me across. Now I had seen him and worked out that he wouldn’t stop and there was no danger to me. As he passed he looked at me and slapped his head indicating that he had made a mistake.
This made me laugh and I happily crossed the road and went into a shop. As I was standing in the queue, someone said, “excuse me, were you just crossing over the crossing?” “Yes”, I replied. “I’m ever so sorry about that, I was so busy focusing on turning right that I forgot about the crossing”, said the man. “That’s ok,” I said, “we all make mistakes. I really appreciate you coming and finding me.”
Now I have to respect the self-responsibility and courage this man displayed, by going out of his way to apologise for his mistake. I call this making good. When you make a mistake that may inconvenience, irritate or even hurt another person, to make good, by way of apology, or taking action to correct the mistake as soon as possible shows a huge amount of responsibility.
In a society where we seem to constantly blame others, or even sue them for our misfortunes, it is enormously refreshing to find people taking responsibility for themselves and their actions. I am grateful for the experience today and for the apology.
Not sure if i would have stoped i might have told you sorry but not have gotten out of van. I do go out of my way if i do something like cut a line by mistake to say sorry but sometimes you never know how the person will react and i think this also plays into how people never bother trying to say sorry.
Dan O’Neil says… I see your point. I think that the ultimate fear is in admitting to yourself that you made a mistake.