Forgiveness

I heard a thing somewhere. It might not be true, it might be offensive, but it’s powerful all the same. I heard that touching a native american with an open hand, in battle, is the worst injury one can give them. This is because, in a life or death situation, you could have killed them, but didn’t. This, at first, seems to have no correlation to forgiveness. This, at first, seems like something that a rambling man in dirty rags would be screaming on the corner of an intersection about (okay, that might be a bit much, but you get the point.) But hear me out. People often, “forgive,” others. Saying stuff like, “don’t worry about it,” or, “it’s fine,” or whatever reassurance one uses. But usually, feelings still linger. Sometimes it’s anger, sometimes shame, sometimes embarrassment, but they’re there. Shame for feeling weak, embarrassment for needing an apology, anger for being wronged, but we say we forgive them all the same, even if we don’t mean it. Now, true forgiveness is the open hand thing I was talking about earlier. Where you accept the actions of those who wronged you and forgive them before they apologize. Not verbal, but internally, where before they even open their mouth, you’ve already accepted it and moved on. This is the open hand. Where you could retaliate, you could act back and be angry and be loud, become them, stoop to their level, make them feel the anger you feel, but you don’t. That’s the open hand, where you could act back and become like them, but you don’t, and you’re the better person for it. Now, I understand that this doesn’t work for all situations, that there are some cases where retaliation/punishment is needed. There are crimes, abuse, and other things that need to be rectified, but you shouldn’t do/act on it because you’re angry, but rather because it needs to be done. If you’re ex cheated on you, dump him, but don’t hurt him, or the person he cheated with. If a guy steals your package, obviously stop him, but don’t injure him just because you can. If a guy’s acting tough and like a douche don’t aggravate him. We humans pride ourselves on being smarter than animals, but that’s all we are, animals with bigger brains. If you surrender rationality to emotion and pain, then you are no more than a wild beast, acting solely on how you feel at the moment and what you feel is the right thing to do. Be the bigger man, prove that you are better than them, show that you will not stoop to their level and act on your emotions like a wild beast. Touch them with an open hand, and be the better man.