Dear Jessica Brennan,
Forgive me, but Canadians are known for being polite and apologetic. Pardon me, but when you are Canadian you don’t always recognize this in yourself, but I saw it first hand last week when I went to get my groceries at my local John’s ValuMart.
This apologetic process began when I was getting my cart, and carried on to the point when I returned it.
Just outside the entrance area of the store a man and I both reached for the same cart.
“Sorry” we said in unison letting go of the cart like we had just touched a hot iron. We both reached for the cart next to that one, not wanting to go near the embarrassing one we had just touched. Then, oh no, our hands found themselves on the same cart again. “Sorry!” “SORRY”! Both blushing and scrambling, we finally each had our own cart.
I met polite-Pierre again in the dry goods aisle where there wasn’t quite enough room for me to get by him. “Sorry” he said with absolute conviction, given that he had held me up for a fraction of a fraction of a second. I had beat him to the punch that time though as I said “sorry”, the moment we made eye contact. He quickly tensed up and dropped his eyes.
By the time we met in the frozen food section he was apologizing for breathing and I was apologizing for needing sustenance at all.
I regret that I am not sure if this ritual comes from our British roots, or if we have created the tradition of being apologetic all on our own in the “truth north strong and free to be polite”.
Anyway, sorry,
Love Mum
xo
