Photo by Evan Kirby, Unsplash
Earlier today I was trying to get my 96 pound dog Riley to sit on a rock with me so I could snap a selfie of the two of us.
Wait. If there’s more than one person in the shot, shouldn’t it be called an usie? Selfie2? (And please don’t bother trying to convince the dog he’s not a person.)
Riley needs to be motivated to sit still for a photo. I typically hold a treat at the top of the phone’s camera, and that’s why I have so many great shots of him looking directly at the lens.
But with a selfie/usie, he’s right there beside me as I’m trying to get the camera set up, attempting to get him situated, WHILE holding a treat tucked into the palm of my hand so basically driving him crazy. It’s like a Three Stooges scene. He’s standing, then sitting, then raising his paw to shake, then working to edge open my palm, and I’m not even seated yet.
Today he kept pushing the treat hand and nosing the phone’s screen as well. (Maybe I was taking too long so he decided to do the shoot himself.) I’m not quite sure what he did to the phone, but an error message popped up: Camera is not working properly. Not a good sign.
I couldn’t get the phone back to a menu page nor could I even get it to power off. (Reboot is always the first techie advice, right?) Firing up my laptop I considered googling “dog slobber on a Droid Turbo 2 screen” but instead tried a more reasonable search of “reset button” for said equipment.
It turns out a Droid’s frozen screen can be fixed quite simply by depressing the power and increase volume buttons simultaneously for about fifteen seconds until the phone powers off. Wait 30 seconds, power it back up, and voila! Fixed.
Naturally, that led me to think about how wonderful it would be to have a reset button for everyday life issues. Overcook the chicken for tonight’s dinner? Reset. It’s once again succulent. Slept in and missed your dental appointment? Reset. Show up at the dental office and a new appointment magically opens up as you walk in.
More importantly, I’m willing to bet most of us have wished for a reset opportunity in our relationships. Mean responses fired out from our lips like bullets, impatient reactions with an older person’s slowness or a young child’s dawdling, sarcasm that spews forth in a disagreement—all the thoughtless and unkind utterances we wish we could pull back and recapture the moment they leave our mouths. Reset.
The only reset I know for those situations is to be immediately sorry and ask for forgiveness. It sounds like this: That was absolutely wrong of me to say that. I’m so sorry. Will you please forgive me?
Have you ever had someone offer a non-apology such as this? If your feelings are hurt over what I said, I’m sorry. OR I know you’re a sensitive person so I regret upsetting you. Seriously, I want to know: How does someone else saying something mean get turned around in such a way where it appears that I am the guilty party?
If you truly seek a reset, then give an apology that acknowledges your responsibility for your action, demonstrates your heartfelt regret, and seeks forgiveness. Anything else falls short.
And yes, I’ve forgiven the dog for slobbering on my phone.
To my readers: What are your thoughts on apologies?
