From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.

Covering up mistakes is something to which human critters tend to default.

Take the cake I made on the weekend. 

It was pretty rubbish. I mean, it tasted ok. But something went awry and the damned thing didn't rise.

It was like a large, round biscuit. The outside was hard and crusty when it was fresh, but if you were to press your finger into it a while later it'd bend like a rubbery version of itself. In the eating, it was quite nice actually. But it looked like rubbish and couldn't pass itself off as Cake Person when it was more like Biscuit Person.

Given my parents had just recently gotten through the gamut of Gestapo on their way into the state, so that we could maybe somehow have some kind of Christmas feel for the first time in a couple of years, I wanted to at least give them afternoon tea.

Cream, thinks I.

Cream will cover up this Thing that isn't quite Cake and isn't quite Biscuit.

Thus I took to the cake with a serrated knife. A sawdust of crumbs flung itself out and over the edges of the plate. Staring at the curvature of the cake, I picked up the buttery exterior and flipped and flopped until everything lined up.

Then, I beat the living daylights out of the cream. It, too, showered the kitchen in a fine layer of comestible yumminess until it deigned to form a cohesive whole.

That cream that almost became butter (intentionally, I might add) found itself flung onto, in between, and around slices of BisCake, whitewashing the overdone exterior, painting a picture of an exotic, soon-to-be-soft-and-lovely dessert.

You can't do that with content of any kind.

I mean, you kind of can.

You can edit things later, sometimes, when you spot fatal errors.

You can replace them, occasionally, if it's too embarrassing.

But you ought never, ever to apologise.

I know you've got emails from people before with 'Oh sorry I sent the wrong thing'; or, 'Oops! We made a mistake...'.

Hate to break it to ya: Nobody cares.

I've sent all kinds of errors.

In the last list email I sent, I even still had a placeholder in place!

Did you get an apology? No.

Do I care if you think less of me? No.

Did it break your understanding of the material? No.

Would I respond to you if you emailed me pointing out the error in a fit of pedantry? Are you kidding. LOL

Simpering apologies are only ever given because of crappy low self-esteem. Get over yourself. It's not life-threatening.

(Or maybe it is, in which case you might think an apology is warranted. You're better off talking to a good lawyer...)

Anyway. If you don't have a policy about this, here's a tip:

Write one.

xx Leticia "just keep moving" Mooney

PS. I've got space right now for two more coaching clients. Want one?