Heh, I hope this makes sense, I’m not going to go back and edit it…just posting as is. Flow of consciousness….begin

So the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a few days ago, the news was overwhelmed with stories about it, honoring it etc. My Facebook newfeed was full of people asking “where were you when the planes hit the towers?” and posting quotes about remembering, and honoring. As I looked at these, I started thinking, “wow, it’s been 10 years?! and what has happened..have we moved forward at all?” the conclusion I came to is no, we are still stuck in victim mode. So then I posted on Facebook “I’m seeing a lot this morning about remembering and honoring, but nothing, not a single peep, about forgiveness. Without that how can we hope of moving forward to a peaceful co-existence. ” and a link to the Dalai Lama’s comments on it…which was about heading towards a peaceful co-existance. (I’ll post that later). The responses I got have had me thinking for a few days now. The “friends” of mine that “liked” it were all pagan. I had four people tell me that they couldn’t forgive the terrorists. And I had one call me unrealistic after I explained that I try to understand where others come from so that I can forgive them…Now, I take being called unrealistic by that specific individual a complement but it got me thinking and it made me sad, that people can’t even begin to think about forgiveness…it’s mentalities like this that will keep wars going for centuries, the old Hatfield-McCoy feud ideal. When will we learn that this thought process brings nothing but sorrow to the world? How many more stories and fables have to be written to bring it home to people that forgiveness is truly the only way forward? How many more lives? Geez, I don’t have an answer to the worlds problems, but I do know that if we look after ourselves and get our own shit in order, then the rest of our life will follow and it ripples out from there “When the people lead, the leaders will follow”. I had so many responses to the person that called me unrealistic in my point of view…none of them were nice, so I didn’t post them…but part of what I did say in response is that at least I’m attempting to imagine a world of peace and understanding. instead of standing there saying “oh no, I couldn’t even TRY to do THAT..forgiveness…no that would be wrong” It’s like the GOP debate that just happened (I didn’t watch it but I do watch the Daily Show and got the amazing highlights of people applauding Perry with his death penalty, and poor Ron Paul being caught with the coma question..and people basically yelling out to let the coma guy die) when did we become this callous, me-centered place? It makes me feel ill just thinking about it. Anyways, enough of a political rant, I was going to write about forgiveness…
So the above facebook discussion got me thinking about forgiveness a lot. Some things I’ve noticed:
It’s easier to forgive people that are removed from you than your friends and relatives.
Forgiveness does not equal condoning what’s been done. To me forgiveness means an acknowledgement that we are all humans and we all make mistakes. We all come from different backgrounds, different stories, and trying to understand those stories is key to trying to forgive actions, but understanding, acknowledging, digging around for compassion and understanding does not mean that I condone the attacks, or Hitler, or Darfur or any of those horrific things that humans have done. I see it all as part of the tragedy that is life, until we can all awaken from our collective sleep. Hate and fear are part of that collective sleep. Things that keep us separated are part of that collective sleep. What if I wasn’t being unrealistic but rather being a revolutionary? Maybe the silent revolution that is taking effect is people waking up from the nightmare. Once more of us wake up, then maybe we can start to work on forgiving ourselves, and then the true healing can take place in this country and the world. But then again, maybe i’m just unrealistic, and a dreamer. And now good night!