Today's icasualties.org number of Americans killed in Iraq had a strange familiarity. Mulling this, it hit me with a sudden shock that this number - 1788 - corresponds precisely to the number of people I've been able to document knowing during the course of my entire lifetime.

So here's a thought experiment for the heart: imagine the world absent of absolutely every friend, family member and acquaintance you've ever known. I might be a neighbor to one person, a co-worker to another, maybe a teacher, a parent or simply a peculiar curiosity. But no one is dismissible.

I am a collaboration - the sum total of my experience. Subtract my first grade teacher from the equation and I become someone else. Change that waiter who gave me a tip on where to camp on Mount Desert Island and my catalogue of peak experiences reads differently.

That is what is happening in Iraq - and elsewhere - millions of life equations are being recalibrated. The impact only appears diffuse.

In the quest to heal and, hence, win hearts and minds, Sorry Everybody and Apologies Accepted represent the emergence of a new and simple tool to bring forth change and understanding.

When official channels abandon diplomacy, the system adjusts and the people assume this role. This is humanpolitik vs. realpolitik. The expressions of kindness and sympathy are humbling, a reminder that people - in the main - are good and strive for the good.