Misunderstanding

A few days ago, Aaron reported a thorn from his school day: He had been drawing by himself, when another kid snatched his drawing away and crumpled it up. Aaron was pretty distressed and sought help from a teacher. The teacher had the other kid write an apology to Aaron, which Aaron shared with me.

Dear Aaron,
I am sorry even though you were being really mean and I crumpled up your drawing! but Please don't hurt or insult pusheen!
From: [redacted]

Aaron said he was not very satisfied with this apology. He says he was just sitting drawing a minotaur as usual and he had no idea why this person had done this to him. I probed to find out what else may have been going on, and he said another friend of his might have said something silly right around then, but it had nothing to do with him. I asked him what "pusheen" is and he said it is a meme; I looked it up, and found that Pusheen is this cat. I think the drawing in the letter is of Pusheen crying.

It seemed to me that there was a misunderstanding and that Aaron was disturbed, so I suggested that he write a letter back to the Pusheen-lover, asking what the heck is going on.

Dear [redacted],
yesterday, I think we had a misunderstanding. in your note you said I was being mean, but I think I was just drawing. [Other friend] might have said something but otherwise, I don't understand why you said I was mean. also, TIP: Don't call people mean in apologies because that might make them want another one. Could you explain why you called me mean? I hope you see how I feel.
your confused schoolmate, Aaron.

I think this is a pretty good letter. Okay, the recipient is unlikely to welcome Aaron's tip, but I think he makes a fair point. And overall, I think there is a spirit of being ready to listen to the other side, which is important in this kind of tricky interaction.

He delivered his letter the next day, but has not heard back. Oh well.