Backing into a corner

Why is it, when we are wrong, we find it so hard to apologise?

I think many people see it as weakness, but actually having the courage to acknowledge your failings is a strength.

There is something in the human psyche which seems to make us want to be in the right all the time and with many people, also always want to have the last word. I know that I always feel life would be so much easier if only everyone would just agree with me! It’s one of our less attractive characteristics, and when taken to extremes, becomes incredibly difficult to deal with.

I have known people who are blatantly in the wrong or clearly lying, but have pursued their argument over such a long period that eventually I’m sure they begin to believe it themselves. They push their case regardless of the evidence against them, backing themselves further and further into a corner until eventually there is no way out and the final humiliation when they are proved wrong is much greater and remembered for so much longer than if they had backed down gracefully earlier on.

No one likes to fail or be seen to be a liar, but there is something to be said for knowing which battles to fight and generally speaking these types of situations tend to arise from very minor disagreements and tensions and then become disproportionate, and in the end, if looked at dispassionately, are not worth fighting about.

What is it that sets apart those people that will pursue a course of action that is contrary to all logic and common sense for incomprehensible reasons without considering whether it is worth the aggravation it inevitably causes? Or perhaps they have considered it, and someone how in their heads they can justify what they do? Who knows, but each and every one of us will have dealt with some one that has been unreasonable, twists facts or lies until they are blue in the face to get their way.

What ever else I may be, I’m not a liar. I think I’d be quite good at it (I am an actress after all) but the main problem for me would be remembering what I’d said and keeping it simple. Most liars are tripped up by contradicting themselves or by over embroidering their stories so they become far too complex to remember. And anyway, I can’t be bothered. There are very few things that are over-ridingly important to me; one is my husband, another is my children and grand daughter, and that’s about it. Not even my job qualifies as something worth telling lies for or about. I simply can’t be bothered; life is complicated enough as it is without remembering fabrications.

I know lots of people, but I have very few real friends, I think because I can’t be bothered with people who do things like this. Hidden agendas and deviousness to me are two of the most unappealing traits you can have and I don’t want to deal with people who do that. I am a straightforward person, and I like others to be straight with me. My conscience is clear, and I think I’ll live longer without the stress!