There is an observation that cats never forgive. Most living things clash with each other, but they also have a method of transferring messages that they are ready for reconciliation and friendship. Even among non-primates there are signs of forgiveness and reconciliation. Most animals do. But cats seem to be an exception.
Whether this observation is scientific is something to be debated. But as a metaphor it contains certain lessons. The same cat that purrs around, rubs around your feet and always rolls over and makes sure to be in love is the one that holds a grudge until the end. It is quite a frightening prospect. The most harmonious people are the ones who distance farther than those who live at the two poles. The deepest nail bites come from the most loved. There is a biblical saying, 'I was wounded in the tent of my friend'.
But there's a problem. The moment you verbally or through body language reveal that you're not ready to forgive, the world stops - you've begun a process of euthanasia. This is how the gates of redemption are closed all over the world. There is no other path in front of humanity except forgiveness. That is what Nelson Mandela tried to say when he came out after a long imprisonment: If I am not ready to leave my bitterness and hatred inside that wall, even if I am on the street tomorrow, I will still be in prison.
The forgiveness project thus becomes a favorite term for the New Age. As mentioned at the beginning, the potential or possibility for reconciliation exists in all living beings. All the more powerfully its springs are hidden deep within each of them like a subterranean river. All of us have the responsibility of taking each other to that river. When the forgiveness project began in 2004, the political meta-religious orientation was conceived by those behind it to awaken that virtue all over the world. They felt that an important tool was to create conditions for listening and telling the stories of people who have gone through severe tragedies and unconditionally forgave the people or events that caused it. The light that is created from such storytelling is beyond imagination. Marina Cantacuzino happens to collect and author such stories from the background of the Iraq war.
Readers will also have a memory of being forgiven unconditionally. The homework of this day for all is whether such a story with extraordinary transformative potential can be told to the children during our dinner. The sense that reconciliation and not revenge, will make this blue planet we live in nobler. That is why He is constantly telling us to forgive.
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