Susil

Profile

Username:
susil
Name:
Susil
Location:
Carthage, MS
Birthday:
01/05
Status:
Single
Job / Career:
Other

Stats

Post Reads:
137,705
Posts:
759
Photos:
4
Last Online:
> 30 days ago

My Friends

> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago
> 30 days ago

Subscribe

News From Mississippi

Life & Events > Forgiveness
 

Forgiveness

To forgive or not to forgive--that is the question.
I received a note from "Chucky" toward whom I feel nothing but rancor and acrimony, saying he had heard Elie Wiesel speak and the question of forgiveness came up and Mr. Wiesel said it was a good thing, and if someone like him could forgive, why couldn't I?

I don't believe that for a second. Chucky doesn't know that while he was still pooping in his diapers, I heard Elie Wiesel speak at a university, and as always the tired old question of forgiveness came up. Forgiveness toward the Nazis. Elie Wiesel was 15 when he was sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis. He survived and wrote "Night" among other works and has tirelessly comitted himself to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive.

He won the Nobel Prize and said "To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all." And one person cannot ever justify "forgiveness" on behalf of millions of other people. There are some sins too great to ever be forgiven (my opinion.) He is a great man and "Night" was a horrifying account of personal experience. It is burned in my memory. The people who died under the Nazis would have to decide one by one if they would forgive what was done to them; it is not up to anyone else to decide that.

When I heard a mother on one of those true crime shows say that she had to forgive the serial killer who abducted, raped and murdered her daughter so she would have "closure," and went to the prison where he was incarcerated to meet with him to tell him she forgave him, somebody should have slapped her on the head. I bet her daughter wouldn't have felt so kindly about forgiving this monster. What mother could forgive that?

This is the truth folks: Only the person against whom the crime was comitted has the right to say I forgive you--or not. And I'll say it again. Some things cannot be forgiven.

susil

posted on Aug 12, 2010 1:56 PM ()

Comments:

Chucky sounds so incredibly unsuccessful at everything that he has, in you, found an excuse for why things go wrong. It's is way of coping with his miserable lack of ability. I just don't understand how anyone could live with and accept him as your daughter does.
comment by tealstar on Aug 13, 2010 2:13 PM ()
dear teal; you have put the whole thing in a "nut"shell so to speak. My precious daughter sems to me like one of those brainwashed women who belong to a cult who swallow everything her husband says and has forgotten how to think for herself.
reply by susil on Aug 14, 2010 2:20 PM ()
I think being able to understand the motives in a run of the mill sort of
sin helps to forgive. There is no forgiving murder, the holocaust, or
other egregious deeds. For instance, I have never forgiven Japan or
Germany for World War II. I will also not forgive Dubya for getting us in
the mess he did and starting needless wars.
comment by elderjane on Aug 13, 2010 5:40 AM ()
I hear you.
reply by susil on Aug 13, 2010 9:00 AM ()
I do agree with you. However for most horrible deeds, it is always best if you can block it out and move on. The holocaust, of course, is a certain horror that most do not ever recover from. And there was the case of Jerzy Kosinski, who had such a horrific early life in war torn Europe, that, even after becoming successful author with a good life in the U.S., he killed himself. However, ifI am ever running a personals ad, I might include in the favorable qualities I am looking for, "Please don't have an enemies list."
comment by tealstar on Aug 12, 2010 6:34 PM ()
It's difficult to block it out and move on, but I have done so--Chucky has not. He is mentally ill and married to my daughter, and since day one I have been his scapegoat for even the teeniest things that go wrong in his life. I live 700 miles away, but if he has a flat tire, I swear, he somehow turns the blame on me. So after being around his hissy fits and scary behavior for years, I cut off all contact with him, and no longer try to placate and make nice and this makes him even crazier. Nope, no more forgiveness for him. I'm through.
reply by susil on Aug 13, 2010 8:57 AM ()
Forgiveness is something we do for ourselves. It is not to make life easier for the forgiven, or any other motive.
comment by jjoohhnn on Aug 12, 2010 2:54 PM ()
Not to forgive is something I do for myself--Chucky is a stalker and I have forgiven him over and over, but never again. It's not something I dwell on; it's like the sky is blue, the grass is green, I despise Chucky. rain is wet, etc. It's just one of those immutable facts of life.
reply by susil on Aug 13, 2010 8:49 AM ()

Comment on this article   


759 articles found   [ Previous Article ]  [ Next Article ]  [ First ]  [ Last ]