O.G. Rose | On Forgiveness (Part I) by O.G. Rose @O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel | Uploaded February 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
If the word “forgive” and “forget” are similes, we should cease using the word “forgive,” for the term “forgive” suggests that the act is “something more” than just “forgetting that something happened to us”; if “forgive” is just a simile, this is not the case, and the term “forgive” should be deconstructed so that we might avoid confusion. When asked directly, sure, many people might say “forgiving isn’t forgetting,” but practically I do think this is how we often act, and furthermore if we’re not clear to ourselves on the difference, we can end up acting like they are equivalent even if we don’t mean to do so. Indeed, alternatively, many people seem to think that a person who remembers a hurt is not forgiving, but do we actually have control over what we remember and what we forget? I don’t know if I’ve ever personally consciously in my life chosen to remember something. I mostly just find myself remembering or find myself not (and forgetting that I forget). If “forgiveness” is a matter of “forgetting,” then forgiveness might be something we have little control over, and yet the term “forgive” seems to suggest agency. For this reason and given the confusion the term can cause, we should probably cease using it—unless that is “forgive” means something else...
For the full essay, please visit:
ogrose.substack.com/p/on-forgiveness-part-i
Medium:
o-g-rose-writing.medium.com/on-forgiveness-part-i-e1463ca60a6b
For more by O.G. Rose:
ogrose.com
Photo by Jametlene Reskp
If the word “forgive” and “forget” are similes, we should cease using the word “forgive,” for the term “forgive” suggests that the act is “something more” than just “forgetting that something happened to us”; if “forgive” is just a simile, this is not the case, and the term “forgive” should be deconstructed so that we might avoid confusion. When asked directly, sure, many people might say “forgiving isn’t forgetting,” but practically I do think this is how we often act, and furthermore if we’re not clear to ourselves on the difference, we can end up acting like they are equivalent even if we don’t mean to do so. Indeed, alternatively, many people seem to think that a person who remembers a hurt is not forgiving, but do we actually have control over what we remember and what we forget? I don’t know if I’ve ever personally consciously in my life chosen to remember something. I mostly just find myself remembering or find myself not (and forgetting that I forget). If “forgiveness” is a matter of “forgetting,” then forgiveness might be something we have little control over, and yet the term “forgive” seems to suggest agency. For this reason and given the confusion the term can cause, we should probably cease using it—unless that is “forgive” means something else...
For the full essay, please visit:
ogrose.substack.com/p/on-forgiveness-part-i
Medium:
o-g-rose-writing.medium.com/on-forgiveness-part-i-e1463ca60a6b
For more by O.G. Rose:
ogrose.com
Photo by Jametlene Reskp
