The Path to Forgiveness
A Journey Towards Peace & Unity
🔄 Break Free From The Cycle of Violence
Today, despite the 100 million souls lost during the 20th century conflicts alone, the world still witnesses major tensions and conflicts. History keeps on repeating itself over and over again. When will this stop? When will we finally recognize that the blood on our hands is ours? When will acknowledge that the people we call “our enemies” are our ancestors, our siblings, our children?
I yearn for that moment, and I know I am not the only one. Millions do. We yearn for that moment when we will all reconnect to the fundamental truth that brings us all together, this simple truth: we all share the same struggles, the same hopes, the same dreams, we all share the same inherent quality of love, we all share the same humanity.
For this day of joy to see the light of day, we need to break free from the vicious cycle of violence. As Desmond Tutu mentions in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, without forgiveness, this cycle will go on forever.
🙏 Forgive
But what does forgiving even mean? And what are we supposed to forgive?
The acts of forgiveness Tutu talks about and that I am referring to in this article is not about forgiving your professor for giving you a bad grade or your parents for not buying you the latest iPad Pro.
What we are referring to are deep major traumatic events. They are historical wounds that Humankind has kept in its tissue since its birth. They still affect us today. The accumulation of these wounds have depleted our Humanity and have pulled Humankind apart.
Those wounds are called historical trauma.
A historical trauma is an event, or a set of events, that happens to a group of people who share a specific identity and that results in the significant disruption of traditional ways of life, culture and identity -Psychology Today
For instance, Black Americans in the USA have suffered from slavery, the Civil War and Segregation. Tutu also mentions the traumatic past of Black people in South Africa
Although we were asked to deal with a period of thirty-four years, from 1960 to 1994, we were really talking about what had been happening in our beautiful land since 1652
🍂 The Deep Roots of Trauma
Research has shown that historical trauma leaves an imprint on the victims’ organism at the cellular level. It is therefore passed down to future generations, and accumulated from generation to generation as they experience more trauma. This kind of transfer is known as intergenerational trauma which the American Psychological Association describes as:
a phenomenon in which the descendants of a person who has experienced a terrifying event show adverse emotions and behavioral reactions to the event that are similar to those of the person him/herself — Stanford Social Innovation Review
Desmond Tutu was a South African Anglican bishop and social rights activist, renowned for his tireless efforts in opposing apartheid and promoting reconciliation in South Africa. He was a man that helped not a few people but a whole nation to heal through the power of forgiveness. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
By finding the courage to forgive, we can heal Humankind and lay the path for our Humanity to flourish once more.
The collage I made above represents some of the major traumas Humankind recently experienced. You might see one picture where people from your country are exploited, oppressed or even killed. And seeing this, you might feel sensations of sadness, horror, or even hate. You might also see people from your country doing harm to others and you might feel guilty or ashamed. In any case, I invite you to forgive. Close your eyes, join your hands, and tell the world: “May we all forgive the harm that has been inflicted to our ancestors. May we heal the wounds of Humankind. May we find the courage to love one another. I forgive.”
As Tutu wrote, forgiving is a nobility of spirit. By doing so, you provide hope that enemies can make peace with one another and that perpetrators of evil can recover their humanity.
Thank you! Thank you for bringing Humankind closer to a place of peace, love & hope! Thank you for reconnecting with and sharing your Humanity! These wounds have been there for a while but together we can heal them all. Learn to forgive. Learn to love. And soon Humankind will be united once again!
