Clear Out The Foes

Loving your enemies means you must forgive them. But it does not mean that you must believe them, respect them or trust them.

Dana Bate
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Hello Sue
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The worst kind of enemies are those you make yourself through carelessness, selfishness and unnecessary animosity. By those enemies you need to be forgiven. But what happens when you make an enemy without being brutish to them? That usually comes about because someone expects something from you which is either too much or too little of who you really are. Or that person has simply put the blindfold on when it came to thinking clearly about you and seeing the real person you are. That form of misunderstanding can cause a lot of alienation and loss of friendship. But does it make for an enemy? It might.

But, as I turn that mirror around and gaqze at my own nature, I realize that I have enemies whom I thought were friends, because I expected too much from them. I inaccurately judged the characters of some people because I wanted them to be who I thought they were, who I thought they represented themselves to be. I can't believe, respect or trust those people, but I can forgive them for their masquerades and forgive myself for being fooled.

Then there are people who just don't like you. They probably don't know why but they will find a reason to justify their hatred. It is quite impossible to trust someone who hates you, but, though difficult, it's not impossible to forgive them for their hatred.

One must be prepared to defend oneself against one's enemies if the enmity spills over into some kind of attack, but revenge is not the intelligent defense. Forgiveness is. It doesn't even need to be expressed. It just needs to be chosen and confirmed in one's own thinking. One can go through thinking about all the things one should have said or done but the fact that they weren't said or done allows for peace.

It's hard to forgave you enemies. Life is hard. But it can be lived more easily without having enemies occupy space in your mind.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
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Atrophic Anger 6/23/09

Where there is great hatred are the fetters of hell.

Anonymous
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Join me for a bit.
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This morning I made a vow to myself that for the next 24 hours I was not going to yell obscenities at my computer, no matter what it did to me.

I'm convinced one can discipline oneself out of rage and hatred just as out of any other bad habit.

I don't understand hatred. It must come out of reaction, not action. People don't do right. So what? Right is a subjective concept any way. People may deserve our criticism, disapproval, disappointment, frustration and disagreement. But hatred is a malignancy which says more about the hater than the hated.

People hated Clinton. Then people hated Bush. Now people hate Obama. I am fed up with listening to it on the radio and TV. I'm disgusted with seeing an adult, intelligent, well educated face screw itself up into a knot of fury over what some other adult, intelligent, well educated face is saying or doing.

Anyone who has experienced love to any degree will agree that love is good. It may have its degrees, but why make exceptions?

I don't like snakes. I fear them, but I don't hate them. They have a right to their existence and to be what they are. I give them space. I will kill the squirmy thing if it threatens me or anyone else around. But not out of hatred. The rattler was not sent by God to punish me for my sins. Nature made it.

There are people in this world whose behavior is so opprobrious it disgusts me, but I would not stand by and let them be attacked by the nasty serpent thinking it serves them right.

The only thing I can truly say I hate is excessive noise. But I don't hate the people who make it. Hatred is weakness, self-indulgence and destructive to the hater's moral and mental strength. Take it from me.

Hatred has no place in the human race.

DB
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A happy summer's day to you.
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