Apology not Accepted (Utne Reader no 92)

A fundamental experience of basic worth helps us tolerate the complexity of being truly human – which, alas, includes such realities as coming in last in a race or losing someone’s love. p. 47

Indeed, it is the essence of obsession to try to handle something in your mind when you believe it cannot be resolved in the outer world. p. 48

Humans will, no doubt, debate this issue until the end of time, when to hold other people accountable, even punishable, for their offense, and when to move toward acceptance and tolerance (transcendence) p. 49

To forgive means, literally, to give up – to give up hatred, revenge, punishment, hard payment of a hard debt.
In struggling to forgive someone, our motive is to move our lives past bitter obsession.
Regrettably, forgiveness is not necessarily about justice. Nor is forgiveness other worldly acceptance of what must be.
In contrast to justice and acceptance, forgiveness is not only the recovery of our spirit, but also the enlargement of that spirit – somehow, some way to imagine the humanity of the injuring spirit. p. 50