{"id":249713,"date":"2023-12-04T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=249713"},"modified":"2023-12-04T05:19:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T05:19:37","slug":"how-to-apologize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/12\/how-to-apologize\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Apologize"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry_content\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Reflections on Forgiveness, Self-Forgiveness, and the Paradox of Doing the Right Thing<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cook a large fish \u2014 choose one with many bones, a skeleton<br \/>\nyou will need skill to expose, maybe the flying<br \/>\nsilver carp that\u2019s invaded the Great Lakes, tumbling<br \/>\nthe others into oblivion. If you don\u2019t live<br \/>\nnear a lake, you\u2019ll have to travel.<br \/>\nWalking is best and shows you mean it,<br \/>\nbut you could take a train and let yourself<br \/>\nbe soothed by the rocking<br \/>\non the rails. It\u2019s permitted<br \/>\nto receive solace for whatever you did<br \/>\nor didn\u2019t do, pitiful, beautiful<br \/>\nhuman. When my mother was in the hospital,<br \/>\nmy daughter and I had to clear out the home<br \/>\nshe wouldn\u2019t return to. Then she recovered<br \/>\nand asked, incredulous,<br \/>\n<em>How could you have thrown out all my shoes?<\/em><br \/>\nSo you\u2019ll need a boat. You could rent or buy,<br \/>\nbut, for the sake of repairing the world,<br \/>\nbuild your own. Thin strips<br \/>\nof Western red cedar are perfect,<br \/>\nbut don\u2019t cut a tree. There\u2019ll be<br \/>\na demolished barn or downed trunk<br \/>\nif you venture further.<br \/>\nAnd someone will have a mill.<br \/>\nAnd someone will loan you tools.<br \/>\nThe perfume of sawdust and the curls<br \/>\nthat fall from your plane<br \/>\nwill sweeten the hours. Each night<br \/>\nwe dream thirty-six billion dreams. In one night<br \/>\nwe could dream back everything lost.<br \/>\nSo grill the pale flesh.<br \/>\nUnharness yourself from your weary stories.<br \/>\nThen carry the oily, succulent fish to the one you hurt.<br \/>\nThere is much to fear as a creature<br \/>\ncaught in time, but this<br \/>\nis safe. You need no defense. This<br \/>\nis just another way to know<br \/>\nyou are alive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"ContributorBioBio-fBolsO giFhKz\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Ellen Bass is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and teaches in the M.F.A. program at Pacific University. Her latest collection is <\/em>\u201cIndigo.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflections on Forgiveness, Self-Forgiveness, and the Paradox of Doing the Right Thing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[1177,868],"class_list":["post-249713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-inspirational","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249714,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249713\/revisions\/249714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}