We’ve come late to The Bear on TV. I think we turned it on for a moment a couple of years ago, saw a lot of people shouting at each other and decided to give it a miss. But now we’ve just finished watching season 2 and are hooked.
Among its many joys is Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna, the main character’s off-the-rails mother. In the final episode of season 2, she has been invited to the ‘family and friends night’ of the new restaurant. Nerves are already stretched, and the prospect of Donna arriving drunk and ultra-disorderly adds an extra layer of dread.
I’m not giving anything away when I say that this extremely volatile character gave me the first line of today’s verse. I’ve wrenched the line from Donna’s context and let it play out in mine.
Verse 13: I don’t know how to say I’m sorry
I don’t know how to say I’m sorry.
The words come easy, and too much.
I'm sorry if I made you worry
when you kicked away my crutch
and sent me sprawling.1 In the water
I said sorry to the copper –
sorry that my wet arrest
made extra work.2 You may have guessed
nuns taught me acts of pure contrition 3
back when I was barely six
and what goes in at that age sticks.
To not say sorry meant perdition.
I often play the sorry card,
but say it from the heart? That’s hard.
1 An imaginary scenario.
2 A true story, see earlier blog post.
3 See here.
Me fail? I fly! 