Article December 11, 2006 Issue

HOW TO RIGHT a wrong long past

NAME WITHHELD

If I met my younger self now, I probably wouldn't like him.

That younger self did things I'm not proud of. Just changing your ways isn't enough—you have to mend the fences you've broken down. But how do you do that when years, maybe decades, or a whole lifetime has passed since? How do you get forgiveness for having been a jerk?

When I was much younger, I wronged a friend—call him Bill. I hadn't realized what I had done at the time, but as I grew in experience and gained a better sense of the ethics required to live a more spiritual life, I remembered Bill. And I quickly tried to forget him again.