Acknowledging the bad call

Listening to Jim Joyce's acknowledgement of his bad call, upsetting Armando Galarraga's perfect game, it occurs to me how little this happens in life.



That people just admit, openly, when they screw up something big. Especially on the biggest things.

Because we kick the shit out of them when they do, is the truth. And no matter how much doing that undermines peoples' willingness to admit when they screw up, and thus maintains the screwing up, we keep doing it. Especially in those areas of life where it matters most that we admit the mistakes.

And the most tragic mistake of all is our unwillingness to admit that any of this matters to getting things moving in a better direction. Because no matter how much we pretend that it doesn't matter, it very clearly does. And undermines most of the big calls in life.

Like him or not, Jesus was not bullshitting. Forgiveness and creating the space for people to admit when they've screwed up really does matter. For reasons practical more than theological. Some people never face up. And those people have to be dealt with differently. But those people are rarer than not. And what facilitates the lives of good people should not be dictated by our fear of the wicked. As a practical matter, more than anything else. Because it makes our lives less safe and less worthy of living. And that fact of existence will be so whether we acknowledge it or our failures in the matter or not.

Jim Joyce manned up and admitted his failure. 'Bout time we did the same.