<a href="http://www.halfwaytonormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2585275184_e91b991fc1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-216" title="2585275184_e91b991fc1" src="http://www.halfwaytonormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2585275184_e91b991fc1.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="296" /></a>
<h5 style="padding-left: 270px;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/charlietphoto/">Charles Thompson</a></h5>
This morning, President Bush held what is most likely his last press conference of his presidency. As always, plenty of what came out of his mouth simultaneously maddened and mystified me. (For instance, when he said, "I never sold my soul for popularity." That's clear. Too bad he sold it for other reasons, like greed and revenge.)

But what got me worked up more than anything else was his response to the question "What mistakes did you make in office?" Bush completely rephrased the question, substituting the word "disappointments" for "mistakes" in his response. Discovering there actually were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, for instance, was a "disappointment."

<strong>Since when is "disappointment" a synonym for "mistake?"</strong>

Apparently since Bush claimed that it's so, and the media blindly reported it that way. Most of today's headlines on this matter say pretty much the same thing: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090112/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_newser_mistakes">"Bush cites mistakes, disappointments."</a> The verb is just switched out from one headline to the next—some say "discusses," some use "lists," and I even saw a "concedes." But always "mistakes, disappointments." What's with that comma?
<h4>"Mistakenly" using the wrong word has consequences</h4>
I totally get why an outgoing president would want to avoid talking about mistakes. George W. Bush isn't the only outgoing president who has tried to sidestep the "mistake" question. (If anyone out there knows of an outgoing president who honestly owned up to mistakes and called them mistakes, please let me know who it was!)

But when you look at the true definitions of those two words, and you look at some of the things that have come to pass under Bush's leadership, his use of the word "disappointment" is offensive.

A <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mistake">"mistake" is defined as</a> "an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc."

<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disappoint">"Disappoint" is defined as</a> "To fail to satisfy the hope, desire, or expectation of." (And "disappointment" is simply "the state or feeling of being disappointed."

So I might be disappointed by the meal I ordered at my favorite restaurant, or by the customer service at a nice shoe store. But is it right to say the abuses at the Abu Graib prison were disappointing? Particularly if I was, at the time, the world's most powerful person, with all the power necessary to put an end to those abuses?

It's true that the words "mistake" and "disappointment" can go hand in hand. I can make a mistake, which is generally thought of as an unintentional error, and can feel disappointed in myself and the results. But for me to focus immediately on my disappointment, skipping over the important process of admitting error and apologizing for it, is a dangerous, slippery slope.

<strong>I know, because I'm not very good at admitting my mistakes</strong>—my errors in judgment, my carelessness, my tendency to make hasty conclusions. Thank goodness I'm not the president of the United States!
<h4>Most of us could do better at admitting mistakes</h4>
I am a wife and mother and daughter and friend, though, so it's important that I become better at this. Being able to say "I made a mistake, and I'm sorry about how it affected you" matters a lot to the people I care most about. It can also have a powerful ripple effect in my broader community. For starters, the more I learn to do this, the more likely my children will be to do the same in their lives, which will make it easier for their friends to follow suit.

When it comes to so many of the people of the world who have real power—the CEOs and senators, and even the pastors and school principals—I'm saddened and frustrated by your lack of humility and strength, and in your failed leadership in this area. Yes, you're human, just like all of us "normal" people sitting around me in the cafe as I write. And how do we so often define being "human?" That's right: We say (perhaps too defensively) "I'm human, I make mistakes."

If the rest of us are saying we know you're not perfect—it's OK to <em>make</em> mistakes—why is it so hard for you powerful people to <em>admit</em> to those mistakes? And how different would the world be if you did?

It might be a day of lasts for George W., but today marks a first for me: I'm actually going to thank our 43rd president for something—for making me think more carefully about the meaning of words, and for helping me see the importance of calling a mistake a mistake.