Posts Written by

The New S-Word

Suddenly, I’m starting to hear the S-word everywhere.

It’s ok kids – this one is PG. I’m not talking about the S-word that stands in to mean stuff or excrement or bad (oh, if only all words were as versatile as the forbidden ones), I’m talking about the word sorry.

Sorry has quickly become the word we use for most human interaction, and, like literally, it has literally become divorced from its actual meaning (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Pass someone in the grocery aisle? “Sorry”. Want to ask a question? “Sorry, where’s the restroom?” Didn’t hear what someone said? “Sorry, could you repeat that?” Make eye contact with a passerby on the street? “Sorry.” Want a spot at the bar? “Sorry, are these seats taken?” Sorry has become a seemingly polite prefix stuck on the beginning of the vast majority of sentences we utter to strangers. Or professional colleagues. Or close friends. Or anyone at all. And it’s a problem.