I’d Like To Apologize, If You’ll Allow Me To Be Serious For a Moment.
The other day, I wrote a post on our websites about my contribution to the Child Safe Dessert Auction.
In that post, I used a word that seemed to minimize the impact of child abuse. I meant nothing of the sort. I confused and hurt a lot of people with my phrasing in the first two sentences, and I distracted from a great cause with my admittedly non-well-thought-out words.
I sincerely apologize. I don't want to bring up the hurt again by repeating it, but I would like to say it was not intentional.
For several years, I have been very supportive of Child Safe, because they are an amazing local charity. My small contribution is minuscule, and I'm aware they have a much bigger picture to deal with than I can possibly fathom from the outside.
Here's the metaphor to explain what happened, at least from my perspective. Let's say I was in the kitchen, helping you clean up after a nice dinner. You had put the entrée on your favorite serving dish, and asked me to bring it to the kitchen to put it in the dishwasher. I bring it in, and on the way, I dropped it. It's broken, shattered into a dozen pieces. While my intention was to be helpful, my intention was to bring the plate in and help.... my effect was that I broke the plate. The plate is broken, I did that, and I am responsible for the consequences of that. It is up to me to try to repair or replace the plate, regardless of the intentions of my actions.
And so, I again sincerely apologize to anyone I may have hurt with my poor word choices. I did not intend to belittle Child Safe or their auction, and I did not intend to make it seem like they had anything but the best at heart in asking me to participate. Admittedly, I was trying to be light-hearted and humorous, and I just missed the mark. I need to be more careful and considerate of my choices in wording, and I will be resolute to do that in the future while trying to maintain my own voice.
The fact of the matter is,...I dropped the plate. Me, and me alone.
That's on me. And I again, apologize for that. Maybe it's better for me to stay out of the kitchen for a minute.