Thursday, March 25, 2010

My Error and a Gracious Response




graciousness

courteous kindly consideration, generosity of spirit



It sometimes seems to me like graciousness is a lost art in today's world.  I was shown today that this is not totally true, at least in the blog world.

I made a typing error in a comment that I left on my friend Betty's blog A Glimpse Into Midlife. She wrote a wonderful post about her Mennonite heritage and the part that heritage plays in her community today in Filadelfia, Paraguay. A part of my comment was meant to say "I know you play a 'big' part in the life of your community. I instead typed "I know you play a 'bit' part in the life of your community. A "bit" part is defined as a small or insignificant role.....far from the truth about Betty.

I noticed my error a day after I made it when I went back to read the other comments left on this very interesting post.  I was embarrassed and felt awful and immediately sent Betty an e-mail to apologize. Her very quick response was full of graciousness and humility. She called it a little mistake and said she knew what I meant. She allowed me to go from feeling awful to feeling good about our friendship.....the ultimate in graciousness.

Blog comments can be a slippery slope. Between typing errors and misunderstanding of the written word with no immediate exchange or explanation offenses may at times be taken. I hope we all benefit from the lesson of Betty's graciousness and continue to give one another the benefit of the doubt.

15 comments:

  1. Lovely. We too often jump to the wrong conclusion that we are being insulted in some way.

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  2. What a lovely post and certainly something we all need to keep in mind as the written word sometimes losing a lot between intent and reception. :) Thanks for the encouraging word!

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  3. Like much of life, sometimes we rush through our blogly duties, too. I'm happy to hear you're conscientious, though. I know that my world has expanded exponentially since starting my blog 2 years ago...

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  4. I agree. We need to cut each other some slack, and be kind. I like how you described this error and I really like Betty's nice response.

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  5. I know how this feels!!
    I have on occasion left a comment that has been interpreted in a different way to what I meant.
    I have offended a few people with my 'call a spade a spade' attitude too!
    And then there is the 'language' thing... down here we call some things an "XYZ" and in another country it means something quite different! Like a thong here is a skimpy pair of knickers, but in Australia a thong is rubber slip on shoes! Weird.

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  6. I hate those kinds of typos.

    I'm glad you got the misunderstanding worked out.

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  7. That also was kind on your part of taking the time to explain. Good manners are always in fashion.

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  8. LOL on your comment "But, I'd be wearing a Rockies' T Shirt"....I have several of those also...I love my Rockies...thing is, we lived in AZ at the time the player [I think it was Vinny Castilla] told me it was a Colorado Ball.

    The snow photo below is just beautiful by the way.

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  9. Awe shucks, now I´m blushing! :) I agree with "idgtm", that it was so nice of YOU, that you took the time to write back and explain your error.
    I rarely get "bad" comments, and especially not from you, so I knew it had to be a typo. :)
    Have a great day Jeanie, my friend!

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  10. Amen to that Jeanie!

    It's challenging to convey things when others can't hear your tone or see your facial expressions. I sometimes forget that when I'm posting or commenting. I tend to be a somewhat sarcastic person. (I know, that comes as shock, right?) Sometimes I get myself in trouble without meaning to.

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  11. Slippery slope indeed. Oh my head spins from all the mistakes I've made that I know of and all those I don't....

    Betty is lovely and so are you and I'm pretty sure I said that exactly as I meant it.

    Love you!

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  12. Absolutely sister! In the rush of tryin' to keep up with everyone and the game of a good chuckle I have gone back and apologized for something I thought about after the fact. So far nobody was ever offended and knew what I was expressing. Like you I would never every leave someone hurt.

    Have a glorious day!

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  13. Betty is such a lovely person and it's just a basic part of her personality to see the good...and good intentions!...in people. I know I for one truly treasure her friendship, even tho she's thousands of miles away and we'll probably never meet face to face in this Life, anyway.

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  14. What you have written is so true! I have gotten myself in trouble with my daughters before via email. They thought I was made and I wasn't.

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