Forgive and Forget

I dropped the ball last night. We had a SNAME meeting, the Student Paper presentations and dinner. We had an executive meeting beforehand, so I had to go straight there from work and get down to business. It was a good set of presentations, the students were very impressive.

Now, I had made plans for afterwards to meet a friend who I hadn't seen in a few weeks. I wanted to catch up, get some Mint Oreo custard - nothing earth-shattering, but I was looking forward to it. But the presentations went long, and I ended up being too late. I was going to call once the meeting was over and meet up at the custard shop, but my friend had been waiting there for some time instead. Then went ahead and had some custard and went home, since she was tired.

I feel like a jerk. I didn't even think to call once the meeting started running over - I assumed we weren't heading out until I called. So now I'm looking for ways to redeem myself a little.

I've always thought the ideas of penance and atonement were very interesting. That you could work off your sins, or even pay them off. The topic would have been more germaine during Lent, Ramadan, or Yom Kippur. But I think it's fascinating that there are so many different traditions and methods to recognize that we've done wrong, and can try to make things right. And even then, we haven't covered all our bases. There's an interesting line regarding Yom Kippur:

The Day of Atonement absolves from sins against God, but not from sins against a fellow man unless the pardon of the offended person be secured. (Mishnah tractate Yoma 8:9)

Being good is so damn hard.

Filed in: Life