Paper Sample on Forgiveness: Navigating the Complexities of Healing and Reconciliation

The most unforgettable memories are the life one spent at school. During schooling, some of my warmest memories include listening to my friend, who always recalls his younger pleasures and hardships. He could tell the story concerning his cousin, who died at a car wash where he used to work. The cousin's employer used to treat his employees ruthlessly and did not support their personal lives. Conversely, the employer gave meager amounts of money after a long day of work. These stories riveted me, and he loved them so much, sharing them with me as his friend. The worst part of the story is that he could never forgive the employer, his neighbor, for causing his cousin's death. June Callwood shares the same story in her essays concerning a small boy in an industrial city around Ontario who was severely beaten by his father. June also describes several occasions when an individual could be faced with the option of forgiving someone. In the June Callwood essay, perspectives such as personal, investigative, and social perceptions will be discussed to explain the importance of forgiveness in life.

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Social perception encompasses the way people form impersonations and make interpretations about other people as self-determining characters. It refers to identifying and utilizing social indications in making judgments about social rules, roles, or other people's characters (Deen et al. 2015). According to Callwood, forgiveness results in healthier peace of mind and soul, and that is why people learn the ways of forgiving (Chisholm 2019). She explains that individuals try to forgive because of the restlessness they encounter. June Callwood addresses the people in need of having peace of mind but cannot forgive. She notes that forgiveness has a significant medicinal effect on health. Callwood states that forgiveness is always seen to be a hard thing, not only for people but for herself (Deen et al. 4596). Forgiveness always requires constant choice, persistence, and courage in order to help it be achieved fully. Forgiveness always starts with the forgiver and hence needs to be cultivated repeatedly in order to help its full benefits achieved fully (Deen et al. 4596). Callwood states that a university professor had an urge to kill an intruder who had beaten up her mother to death. She stopped up her heart by asking, "Whose heart is hard." She believed that when one forgave, they received greater benefits than the one they were forgiving. The act of forgiveness may be viewed to be weak by many people (Chisholm, Christine, 1958). The act should not worry about anyone since the overall outcome of forgiveness is always that matters. The act of forgiveness always provides healing, whether it is to an individual, three people, or a group of people.

When his father beat the boy in Ontario for being gay till he needed a doctor to help in the switching of the wounds, this act is seen to be unforgivable as said by this young man later in life when he grew up (Deen et al. 4596). The article does not show any future burden of the young man as a result of his unforgiving nature. If the man has been affected negatively by this, he is living in a copious hate amount built up towards his father and himself. Forgiving benefits always can never be able to outweigh the cost (Chisholm, Christine, 1958). Callwood stated that forgiving hurts due to confronting the offender and offense hence giving evidence in their actions as not being the source of their hatred and sorrow.

A biracial baby and her mother is another situation. It is concerned about the grandmother who has racial discrepancies towards the daughter and the grandchild. On entering into the relationship, the mother should be aware that she is going to have racism and hate. The mother felt betrayed and hated due to her disgusted face, but the real victim is the child who is seen to have no choice over the issue (Deen et al. 4596). The Grandmother’s and mother’s relationship is felt by the child when the feelings are not amended, and the child may end up growing up, thinking that there is always something wrong with their grandmother. When one feels it is the right thing to not accept forgiveness, it is subjective; hence it is only determined by the way it always affects how they live and how others usually live.

Forgiveness is always seen as a choice, and one should always have the will to forge others. Like the addiction that one always feels the want of quitting so that they can make a change, is the same way forgiveness acts. The thing is always that forgiveness does not abandon one's responsibility to be able to own up to all that they have done. When the offender defends themselves, forgiveness for others is always hard to be practiced. In this scenario, forgiving is seen to be very tedious since one reminds themselves that they are not going to allow anyone to hurt them in any way and at any time (Chisholm, Christine, 1958). The act of letting the emotions built up go from you is always seen as a process of forgiving the one who did so since there is no feeling seen behind anything they had done. The way of forgiving breaks relationship trust, which may lead to the ruining of the whole relationship.

Works Cited

Chisholm, Christine Anna. Life after the Scandal: Thalidomide, Family, and Rehabilitation in Modern Canada, 1958-1990. Diss. Carleton University, 2019. https://curve.carleton.ca/f7bbdb72-c035-4b13-bb33-8b7c03d8946c

Deen, Ben, et al. " Functional organization of social perception and cognition in the superior temporal sulcus. Cerebral cortex 25.11 (2015): 4596-4609. https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/25/11/4596/2367585