An old coworker at the post office handed me advice on apologies in 2019 and I still think about it

Jason Allen · 2026-10-01T23:55:04.148278+00:00

Back in 2019 a clerk I worked with in Spokane named Doreen handed me one line after I vented about a blowup with my brother over our mom's estate: "An apology with a but in it is a debate, not an apology." I nodded and forgot about it for two years. Then I wrote my brother a letter I never mailed, and I caught myself typing "I'm sorry, but you also..." and deleted the whole thing. I rewrote it with a straight sorry and nothing after it, and that unsent draft is the one I feel calm about. The weird part is the apology I did send out loud never landed because I tacked on a list of reasons, so I guess Doreen was right. Has anyone else caught themselves sneaking a but into an apology that was supposed to be clean?

💡Thought Shares

Loading…

An old coworker at the post office handed me advice on apologies in 2019 and I still think about it | Apology Letters Unsent - Thought Shares