Rebecca wrote:
>Though, with all respect, the tangled logic is in your original post which
conflates the preceding discussion on the quality of mercy in four
particular lines of Prospero's speech with the issues of list management and
your review and the expectation of forgiveness as "an invocation of respect"
and "giving care to another."<
Erm, no, my views on forgiveness were not directly related to issues about
this list. I was thinking from direct experience, let me give you an
example: years ago a guy got in a fight with me after a party, both he and I
were somewhat damaged, unfortunately for me a punch of his dislodged my four
upper front teeth with the result that they had to be extracted and I was
introduced to the joys of a dental plate. I'd never met the fella before and
only did again once and, guess what, I offered my hand in friendship, and
forgiveness ( I didn't start the fight btw). My hand was accepted.
Other people said to me that I was crazy to do that, but that is how I
think/feel about these matters. I'll give you a little Buddhist story:
Two monks are walking along when they come to a riverbank. There an elderly
man asks if one them will carry him on his back across the river. One monk
agrees and does yet all the time of the river-crossing the old man is
complaining and berating the monk who is carrying him and on the other side
he goes off without a word of thanks. A mile or two down the road, the
second monk has been continually complaining about the behaviour of the old
man when the monk who carried him says: "Why are you still carrying that man
on your back? I let him off at the riverbank."
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
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