Um, I’m sorry

The media is full of hot takes. You can turn on any news, entertainment or sports show any day of the week and see an analyst review a few seconds of video and come out with speedy piece of commentary that’s focused less on being right and more on attracting attention.

And oh, it attracts attention. The hot takes run the gamut from the “This is why Biden/Trump/Kennedy is going to win in November” to the “The star quarterback went off on diva receiver for running the wrong route.”

Sports is full of hot takes, but this isn’t a sports story. 

You said what?

After the Philadelphia 76ers second loss in the NBA Playoffs against the New York Knicks, ESPN Personality Stephen A. Smith poked fun of the way 76ers center Joel Embiid looked on and off the court. He thought his demeanor wasn’t very encouraging for the rest of the team. In particular, he criticized Embid for not looking up, but instead looking down on the ground.

Well, there’s a reason Embid wasn’t looking up with his head held high. Over the weekend, the Sixers staff announced that Embiid is suffering from Bell’s Palsy, a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face. The weakness makes half of the face appear to droop. Smiles are one-sided, and the eye on the affected side is hard to close and can be easily bothered by bright lights. The weakness is short-term and improves over weeks, but there’s little you can do to speed up the process.

What were you thinking?

Now to be fair to Stephen A., he has made positive comments about Embiid in recent weeks as well, claiming that he would be the greatest big man in history if it weren’t for injuries. And Stephen A. may have retracted some of his statement after the news came out, I don’t follow him well enough to know if he apologized or brought it up again.

But, it got me thinking about real life.

Not just in the media

We have hot takes about friends and coworkers and people we see in our lives all the time. How often do we apologize? “Yo Joe, I called you a maligner for whining about our new project and taking off when we needed you the most. I’m so sorry I was wrong to say that about you! I didn’t know that you’re going through some troubles at home. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

Um, how often does that happen?

How about never, but maybe we should.

I found myself in a strange situation just this week. For the past several months, I’ve been teasing my college-aged son about looking for a summer job. I didn’t want him to waste his summer away. He’ll probably need to look for an internship or job in his field next summer so I wanted him to make the most of this one by earning money to use throughout the school year.

He’s been busy with a heavy course load. I just assumed that he hadn’t made much progress. Yes, I was wrong.

Sure enough he had made a few calls from school and it looks like he’ll be working again at the same place he worked last summer. I found myself apologizing to him for doubting that he would have something by the time he came home. I was in the wrong.

“Um, yea sorry about that. Excuse my hot take!”