Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry?

I remember at a young age seeing that quote from the movie Love Story...you know, the "Love means never having to say you're sorry" quote.  While I'd like to think I've evolved in many ways from elementary school until now, my response to that quote remains the same: Bull.Shit.

 

Love means saying you're sorry more than ever!  Those we love unfortunately take the brunt of our bad stuff - our worst days, seeing us at our most fatigued, most irritable, and most flawed.  Which is precisely why they deserve apologies if we love them.  They deserve to know that we realize we failed them, that we regret it, and that we will be aware of it moving forward and do all that we can to avoid hurting them in the same way again. 

 

I don't care how old you are, what your title is, whether you're the parent or child, or whether you feel your excrement stinks or not....you are not perfect and you hurt those around you.  It's inevitable.  We are all human.  Furthermore, we can all expect to be hurt by those who love us.  It's what happens afterward that matters.  Do we behave in an arrogant, prideful, stubborn, or cold manner?  Do we become award-winning actors who pretend that nothing happened and attempt to conduct life as usual?  Do we make misguided attempts to erase what we've done with gifts, hugs, money, humor, compliments, etc.?  Or do we....quite simply....look our loved one in the eyes and tell them we are sorry?
 

Maybe we don't even believe we are wrong at the core of the issue, whatever it may be.  Maybe we just need to apologize for the way we said something or the way we made someone feel.  After all, if we don't care about the way we make our loved ones feel, and we don't care about making sure they know that we care about how we make them feel, how can we say we love them?