Re: a surprising thought this morning

"I have always thought that if you insult someone, say something blunt, you should apologize later."

Apologies are like retractions when you make a factual error; its proper to acknowledge when you find yourself in the wrong. But its better to avoid hitting post in the first place if you find yourself having to do this often.

We all grow; socially and intellectually. We will all find ourselves reflecting later on our past mistakes. But we should hope that our current posts reflect our present state. And that this state is stable over more time than it takes to click "post."

"Of course, if my words were too harsh, then I can explain them later and say that I should have put it in a milder way - but I don't have to take my words back."

But of course you can't take your words back, and you didn't put them differently.

We apologize, and issue retractions for what we did do, not what we wanted to do but didn't.

Dante