Forgiving the Present (In Three Tries)
What matters most to me in this essay is this quotation from William Stafford, “Justice will take us millions of intricate moves.” Oates adds, “And gestures of forgiveness must begin each one. Recognition of suffering: one’s own, one’s neighbor’s.”
Oates writes this after reflecting on his anger about the war in Iraq and the blind adherence to fundamentalism, whether it takes place in an evangelical church that teaches a child to loathe what he is, or from a U.S. talk show that encourages people to become angry enough not to care about the difference between civilians and combatants, or a cleric that teaches all Americans hate all Muslims.
In my slight experience with forgiveness, this is an act difficult to practice even for people you love, or people to whom one owes much. What must it take to forgive one who has harmed you? My friend Naseem Rakha has written a wonderful book about forgiveness, The Crying Tree, which she wrote in response to her experience of meeting a woman who forgave her own child’s murderer. What must that take? In fact, we are all going to need to learn to make these intricate moves if we are to survive together.
(Response to David Oates’ Essays in What We Love Will Save Us)
Forgiving the Present (in Three Tries)
Poetry on the Elliptical
Empty Pods and Pleasant Graveyards
Six Good Places
On Pleasure
What We Love
Essays in Response to a Friend’s Writing
