Status Updates From Failures of Forgiveness: Wh...

I have 50 pages left until I’m done. That’s my primary thought right now. I hate that I feel that way; I really hoped this book would speak to me. The discussion comes across to me as a little too informal, too anecdotal, to feel invested in. Maybe if I were reading it slower, I could contemplate what Cherry is saying and wring more depth out of it.

I’m not sure what exactly I was looking for in this book, but whatever it was the book isn’t really delivering it. If I’m being honest, I guess I was hoping for a way TO experience forgiveness rather than affirmation that not to forgive is okay or that it might not be accompanied by reconciliation. I wanted a “How To” guide on how to feel okay. That isn’t something this book is equipped to deliver.

So far, I am not liking this book as much as I’d hoped I would. It feels a little loosey-goosey to me. I generally agree with the idea that forgiveness has many different aspects to it but I’m not totally taken with much else yet. It feels like a lot of assertions not very well-established.

“It’s not that the resolution bar is too high, but that forgiveness is not the only path to resolution.”

“…our own families can forgive each other and demand consequences. When we equate forgiveness with tolerating or excusing misconduct, we breed more trauma, which is antithetical to the basic idea that families should provide security to one another.”

“When we command others to forgive, the command gets its force from our presumed authority as requesters…”