If I had my life to live over and wanted to be a big success when I grew up, I’d do something really stupid when I was young. I’d get in trouble with the law, run away from home, do badly in school and get myself suspended for missing classes.
I’d get a lot of bad stuff on my record because then, when I got older and wanted to run for office or become a high-priced athlete, everyone would think I was great because I used to be such a bad person.
They’d admire me more for having straightened myself out than they would if I’d never been crooked in the first place. […]
Latrell Sprewell, the New York Knicks basketball player, is a crowd favorite. He no longer grabs his coach by the throat and tries to choke him – as he did in 1997 when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors and choked his coach, P.J. Carlesimo. He is much admired now for having overcome his natural propensity for choking coaches.
During the darkest months of his eight years in office, the ratings Bill Clinton got for the job he was doing remained high. The attitude of many Americans was, “A man’s personal life is his own business.” They forgave.
One of the tings we like most about ourselves is our ability to “forgive and forget.” We drag out popular sayings, some from the Bible:
“To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
“Let bygones be bygones.”
“We’d all like to have 20/20 hindsight.”
“Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”‘
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us.”
“Judge not that ye be not judged.”
The most popular cliche recently has been, “Let’s put this behind us and move on with our lives.” It’s another way of saying “Forgive and forget.”
“This should provide closure for the victims’ relatives,” they said of the execution of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was given the “last rites” of the Catholic Church.
If a person confesses his sins everything’s going to be OK for him in heaven. Maybe. While I am aware of the virtues of forgiveness, I can’t always be forgiving. The trouble is, if you forgive someone for something, they’re more apt to do it again.