Now let’s take things further…. Why do we really apologize? Apologizing doesn’t really change anything. Apologizing doesn’t undo the damage we did. Like if we accidentally bump into someone and the book he’s carrying falls, we apologize. Then if we are not so self-absorbed, we pick up the book that has fallen. Saying “I am sorry” can’t undo the fact that we caused the book to fall. Retreving the book was a more practical response. It still doesn’t take back our mistake but at least it rectified the situation. So why do we say those three little words? We do so because we don’t want things to escalate? The person carrying the book might take offense because it was a first edition hard to find expensive book? It was an automatic repsonse? A social norm? We apologize because we sincerely made a mistake. If that is so, do we apologize to make the offendee feel better? Or do we apologize to make ourselves feel better? To assauge the guilt we are feeling? So things would be back to normal. I really don’t know….