Jelisava

Spring Bleeding Hearts / April 2007

Repetitive forgiveness. I heard former President Jimmy Carter talking about “repetitive forgiveness” in a radio interview. I kept thinking about it all day. We often think of forgiveness as a one-time event, but it needs to be unceasing. With the people who are closest to us, we need to forgive over and over (and to be forgiven over and over). Carter used the idea of the forgiveness necessary in a marriage as a metaphor for the forgiveness required in broader relationships: between nations and societies and individuals.

“Let us forgive each other --
only then will we live in peace”
~ Leo Tolstoy