My bedtime thoughts / Forgiveness
Forgiveness
Everyone at home is watching an anime series called Naruto, we are going for the second season which is based on the desperate attempt of the main character to rescue from the darkness the one he considers his friend, who because of his desire for revenge commits terrible atrocities that endanger the lives of all the villages in the plot, and even, the whole world.
It is a rather complex series, but what I wish to bring to this canvas is the theme of how the absence of forgiveness generates a circle of hate, which never ends.
There was a particularly sobering scene, in which the protagonist, Naruto, fights a powerful rival who had killed two of his closest friends and also destroyed his village, in order to capture him; all in search of a higher power to destroy the world and make man know the pain and through that pain he could understand how much one suffers in wars, since he is a survivor of a war in which he lost everything he had, starting with his parents. From his suffering caused by so many atrocities throughout his life, that was his way of finding peace in the world. Naruto was determined to avoid it and understood that the only way was to break the cycle of hate.
The villain, at some point in the battle, in his attempt to make himself understood by who had been a worthy opponent for him, asked Naruto if he had the answer to how to end the wars? how to achieve world peace?
The two rivals conversed, each exposing his pain. At the end of the scene, Naruto recognizes that he does not have the answer and that even after hearing him, he still hates him and wants to kill him for so much pain he caused; however, he decides to spare his life, because he knows that revenge only brings more revenge. That he doesn't give up and that he will continue looking for the way to find that peace, which he also wants so much and that was his way of showing him how serious his intentions are.
In reality, it is unimaginable to think of forgiving someone who ended the existence of a loved one, if a simple aggression is enough to feel deeply hurt, to the point of wanting the person to disappear from your life (and if he leaves the planet better). And certainly wars bring so much death and pain... the saddest thing is that we usually see them as something so alien, as if they were a movie. Only those who suffer them are aware of what they mean to those who manage to survive. The worst thing... they're just for power. The one who has more, wants more.
If differences cannot be overcome in peace, how can we think that they will be overcome after such a painful process? Morale, spirit, strength, physical and mental health, economy... Everything collapses after a war. You don't win, you lose.
In such an unconscious way we criticize everything and even have the audacity to say how things should be done, but we are not capable of having our own life, our own feelings, in order. "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone", a wise phrase that avoided a stoning. I imagine that scene today: most likely each of us would throw the stone so as not to be exposed, and the most guilty would throw it first. If we were fairer beings, following only that same premise, we would not even be able to open our mouths against anyone. And I'm sure that, whoever is really free of guilt, wouldn't do it either.
Forgiveness is a blessing that brings peace to your soul, it has nothing to do with the other, but with you. It's a gift we don't want to open because our wounded soul doesn't find it attractive. It is very difficult to turn the other cheek, and forgiving means doing so. For me this is a difficult subject and I still have a lot of work to do, so I try harder to learn how to overcome it.
If we cannot be at peace with our own, how do we expect world peace to exist? The world is a reflection of what we are, our country is a reflection of what we are, and finding that dream paradise depends on us. We still have much to grow, to mature, to learn, to evolve.
We must not wait for change outside, we must start with us
Own image edited with April application downloaded from Play Store for Android. Translation courtesy of the deepL website.