Medela (me-de’-la): When you can’t deny or defend friends’ faults and seek to heal them with good words.
Life is too complicated for anybody to evade failure or making mistakes. I’m 67 years old, each year is an anniversary of some kind of screw up. I’m a little higher than average on the goof-o-meter, but that’s just the way it is. Like I said, I’m 67. I’m still here and I generally enjoy life. I’ve got a key here that you might want use to unlock your problems and walk away free. You need to develop a strategy you can use that will allow you to learn from your mistakes and forgive yourself whenever you can. If you are wrong, admit it. Do not bear malice toward those who rightfully accuse you.
The latest thing: stealing nine carrots from your neighbor’s garden plot. If you think about your reason for doing it, it would be like cutting water with a knife—silly. So you need to admit it to Molly. Apologize, and volunteer to help in her garden. Prove yourself worthy of her friendship. Redeem yourself by helping her in the garden.
Who knows, you may become friends. That’s how I met your mother. She wouldn’t look at me and I was mad for her. So, I ripped wires out of her car, from under the hood. I planned to come to her rescue and fix what I broke. It didn’t work. As soon as I asked if I could fix her car, she knew it was me who ripped out the wires. She reported me to the police and I was convicted of the wanton destruction of another person’s property. I was tried and convicted and spent thirty days in jail. I’ll tell you another time how we hooked up and ended up getting married. I’ll give you a hint: we went on a “job” together after I had apologized and fixed her car.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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