Forgiveness in 2014

First H A P P Y N E W Y E A R! When was the last time you forgave someone? When was the last time you felt you should but didn't? I know these are unusually personal questions for The Musical Patriot. Yet somehow they seem relevant to the main purpose of this web log -- events both public and private. The name of the book I mentioned two days ago is Total Forgiveness and the author is R. T. Kendall. I have only just begun this book. There always seems to be too much competition for book-reading time. Yet the thesis of this book is so important and the need for it seems to be backed up, at least anecdotally. The author claims that forgiveness, no matter how difficult, brings a certain kind of peace which may be ever so needed by the forgiver. Of course seeing the need for forgiveness is a requisite first step and I believe there is another method more advantageous than this book for prompting a certain kind of seeing. But once the need is seen this book does give a good introduction to the subject of forgiveness. So what in the world does forgiveness have to do with world events? It will be important for our purposes here to understand that individual acknowledgement of grudges held is key to understanding the human psyche in this area. And, quite obviously, national repentance, if you want to use that word, cannot happen without individual repentance. I realize this may sound more like a minister speaking, but apparently the secular psychology world is confirming the benefits of forgiveness through research studies. The Middle East conflict comes to mind immediately. But let those of us in other areas not be smug. How easily Weimar Germany drifted into fascism through a sense of enraged victimization. Anyone one of us has regrets. Some are legitimate. The point of Total Forgiveness is that those of us who have been wronged may be able to bring peace to our own souls through forgiveness. May the study of forgiveness become the new study, more popular and more useful each passing month. So, I repeat: Happy New Year!