Today I was upbraided, rightly, for leaving someone out of a conversation.
This happened not a few days before with another person.
I also fail, regularly, to include other halves of married couples in correspondence – including my own wife.
All of this is compounded with texting and email. I am horrible and hate texts, so never tag other names onto the texts to include others in the response. Color me voice circuit enabled.
You see, I am insensitive to the needs of others in terms of communicating clearly. It is a thing I work on, but in the wake of my boorish (although benign) behavior, I leave hurt feelings.
I am working on it. So I would like to take this opportunity to tell each of you that if I fail to respond properly, say thank you promptly, or include you in a group response it is unintentional. I quit wishing people happy birthday on social media a few years ago because I missed too many people and they felt excluded. I thought it, but forgot to type it. Not doing it at all makes everyone happy.
Most of us travel through life like that, leaving wreckage in our wake. I truly mean no harm. But I have a really thick hide and don’t worry when I’m excluded from such things. Not that it wouldn’t be nice, but it is not a game-changer if I’m left out. I forget that others don’t view it the same way.
For that, I am truly sorry. If I wanted to hurt your feelings, I would flame you out big-time, and not a death by a thousand cuts. I don’t even do that much anymore, but I hate the thought that I have hurt someone that I love by being careless.
I will work on it. I hope you just remind me (and not with a warning shot) if I do it to you again. I will continue to listen and try. I’m so far from perfect that I’m a poster child in many places. The “Don’t be like that.” kind of poster.
But, dang, I look good in the photo.
