Geoff Thompson
We are powerful:
Our money and our arms and our guards and our borders and
our very high walls and our razor-topped fences
and our laws
they procure and they protect entitlement
they bankroll and bloat and glut our security
they boast every power
We are masters…of the earth and the air
and the land and the seas
We hold dominion…over all manner of creeping things
We eat all manner of creeping things and yet…
In this world of pseudo power of wealth of control
an infinitesimal enemy
is bringing us to our knees
Fear…wipes out human artifice like a wild fire
It threatens our only real power
the ability to breathe
It is no bad thing for a crisis to show us truth
A crisis is not a crisis unless it comes with truth
This might seem like a bad time for the world body
but it is a good time for the human soul
This is a very good time
to lighten its load and forgive
We have already been forced to escape
our other false-idols
why not take advantage of this exodus
and evict the squatting demon of vengeance
It belittles us
Human intolerance emasculates the living spirit
It leaves the door wide open for beast and foul
I am not talking about letting people off
That it is not what forgiveness is
It is a moral flaw to judge the failings of others
whilst we still fail to judge the moral flaw in our selves
Be in no doubt:
reciprocity settles its own accounts
It doesn’t need our help, this Force;
it does not need our witness in order to work Its power
If we deny this law
it is only because our understanding is embryonic
The Truth is undeniably right in front of us
Forgive
Give it over
Place it down
Don’t cleave to the instrument of your own torture
and then call it power
Be God-like in your grace:
Similis erit deo
Forgive because to forgive is divine
Heed the wisdom of Maimonides
and his Thirteen Attributes of Mercy:
Compassion before offence has been taken
Pardon in the aftermath of abuse – we all need mercy
and we can only be forgiven
to the degree that we can forgive others
Forgiveness is emancipation
It is freedom from the hidden control of adverse forces but
…these aphorisms, these spiritual truths
these seeds of wisdom
they fall on hard ground
I understand that
I nursed and fed my own revenge-story
for three long decades
before I realised…that holding on
painful painful holding on
invited continuation of the abuse
even in the absence of my abuser
I understand
that these are mere abstractions in the absence of faith –
so you might deny forgiveness as a metaphysical power
Perhaps then I can persuade you
with a biological certainty:
Grudge, violence, anger, confusion, fear
they weaken immune function
they suppress your natural defences they close them down
If you are not convinced
of the hidden benefits of forgiveness
be entirely persuaded of its revealed power:
Forgiveness fortifies immune function
It is a physiological precedent
You need some protection
In these uncertain times
when the roaming lion of pestilence
is looking for bodies to snatch and souls to invade
you need every protection
Forgiveness is something you do for yourself
for your own health
for your own wellbeing
It is not out of kindness
for the recipient of your pardon
that you release the burden of your pain
the kindness is for you
it is for you the kindness
…the kindness is entirely for you
