Forgiveness is amplified
With years of tears
On the backs of the broken
On the heels of the weak
There are no tomorrows to
Forgiveness
Only yesterdays
But we are taught to
Never look back
Only to the future
Where our destinies
Run
Forgiveness is not
Natural
It cannot be a
Part of infinite wisdom
A planned strategy
For all of us on this rock
To forgive is a sign
Of failing
Deteriorating to the
Point of forgetfulness
There is no use
To hoist my
Memory from its own
Petard
Will this bring back my
Happiness
Will it reshape my
Meaning of humanity
Of being myself
But a man
In a beautifully
Unrighteous place
Haunted by past indiscretions
And privileged injustices
Of the few I have
Come across
Yet I quote
Old Mr. Williams
“You slapped my face
Oh but so gently I smiled
At the caress.”
Forgiveness always
Comes with pain
And it is our human
Duty to reject
Sufferings
The responses to Wiesenthal’s story seemed to be fairly split down the middle. Many of the respondents who dealt with the worst inhumanity seem to lie on the forgiveness side. I understand the Dalai Lama’s choice in forgiveness, being a Buddhist and all, but others seemed vexed, if not pained, by their own choice. Even Bishop Desmond Tutu is choked with the idea of forgiveness while feeling it is neither “facile nor cheap.” Despite or perhaps because of his studies, he is plagued with the idea that while forgiveness is expected from the Creator it is not to be taken lightly. Does one have to forgive themselves to bestow forgiveness on another?
This question is, I believe, best answered in the reading of Jean Avery. Wiesenthal’s argument publicizes forgiveness. Avery counters with “Your problem is not a problem for me.” Taken out of context this quote would be by many considered rude or brutish, yet Avery backs his claim by stating the world is a personal place. It does not matter what anyone else thinks because “Gods and Devils are inside of us.” Many people forgive to relieve themselves of a personal pain. A personal pain.
One must consider the weight of the injustice and make his own peace with it. Avery says it best, I think, when he states, “It does not matter one way or another.” He is not being cruel, he himself was a holocaust survivor and is a friend of Wiesenthal’s, but he comes at it with a different perspective than the one Wiesenthal has wrestled with. To Avery all things, pleasure and pain, are personal and it is up to one’s self to make peace with any encountered wrongdoing by another. Although Avery is a self-described agnostic, his writing gave me pause while I asked the question, “Am I capable of true forgiveness, and if so how?”