Mea Culpa

When I was in high school I had this rather amazing English teacher who was okay with it if you hadn't done your work. She didn't like it and she certainly didn't endorse it but she knew that sometimes, things didn't get done. Once she assigned an essay on the prior night's reading assignment in The Scarlet Letter. She must have sensed our pens hovering over our papers preparing to conjure answers out of thin air because she announced:

Anyone who has not done the reading, please rise, say "Mea Culpa" and bring your blank papers to me.

There were no further consequences for any of us, except for Morgan. He had to water her plants. We were good kids; we didn't take advantage. The rest of the term I did my assignments.

But lately? I haven't been doing my work here. And I am very sorry. I will be back, I promise, with delicious recipes and tales of both happiness and woe from the kitchen. But it might not be for awhile. Maybe June? I think I could handle June. I just have some more urgent things to attend to. Some of which I should be attending to RIGHT NOW.

Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa. (Lent may be over, but the guilt never ends...)