Sincere Apologies

It will be rare that I post a completely bland snapshot to this photoblog, as I am now.  Had I known that I might one day display this picture so publicly, I’d have taken a moment to compose the thing.  But I took it in a rush, thinking that later in the day I would simply download it to my computer (for enlarged viewing), type up the text (which I'd then store in a Word document in case I might one day find a use for it in a story), and then I’d either delete the photo or file it into some dark recess.  I'm sorry the picture's ugly.

But in recently coming across the photo again I decided to post it here--largely because it says something commendable about the people in charge of the Bangkok Mass Transit System.  I love how they very clearly explain what the problem was, acknowledge the domino effect the mishap on train #24 had on others down the line, and then apologize for the inconvenience some may have experienced.  That’s classy.  And to add to the class, they posted the sign in both Thai and English (for all of us foreigners who can’t read a lick of Thai).

The BTSC folks, of course, did something not only classy but also civil and healthy.  It's good to say "sorry" when something you do, even if unintentional, affects other folks.  I suspect that had the narrator in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men been moseying through this Bangkok skytrain station and laid eyes on the posted apology, he would’ve nodded his approval.  Here’s what he says in the book:

My daddy always told me to just do the best you knew how and tell the truth.  He said there was nothing to set a man’s mind at ease like wakin up in the morning and not havin to decide who you were.  And if you done somethin wrong just stand up and say you done it and say you’re sorry and get on with it.  Dont haul stuff around with you.  I guess all that sounds pretty simple today.  Even to me.  All the more reason to think about it.