Search your memory banks – think back to some rotten kid who humiliated you in grade school. Everyone has some sort of memory like this – someone who teased you for being fat, or skinny, tall, or short, wearing glasses or braces, or having red hair. Remember that kid? That one who took every opportunity to try to drive you nuts? Maybe that kid made you cry or stole your lunch money. Maybe they got other kids to throw rocks at you or maybe they told other people lies about you. In any event, you know which kid I’m talking about, right?
Well, anyhow, think of that kid. What if you met that kid today, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years later? What if you discovered he was the manager of the local supermarket? What if he started working at your office? What if he ended up being your mailman? It would probably still bug you to see that person, right? Even all grown up, you might still have some residual feelings about what they did to you as a kid.
Now imagine they recognized you and they hung their head low, barely able to meet your eyes, and they approached you, very humbly, and voiced their sincere apology over how terrible they were to you so many years ago. What if they let you know that they have realized the horror of their actions and have thought of you many times over the years, wishing they could apologize and make things better? What if they were really sorry for what they did and they made a special point of telling you so?
Would you forgive them? Probably.
Would you be really, really, really glad that they apologized? Probably.
Would the apology make you feel better? Probably.
Even after all those years had elapsed? Yes.
Okay, now that we’ve proved that there is NO statute of limitations on apologies, and that they’d be welcomed and accepted, no matter how many years later they’d come…
… to whom do YOU owe a long-overdue apology?
