Day 167: Forgiveness

Today was a fasting day.

Also it was (or will be) Yom Kippur a Jewish holiday about which I know nothing other than its the day my wife asks me to forgive her for any past wrongs real or imagined she may have done.  Forgiveness seems to have a big part in most monotheist religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism that I know of).  In principle I'm all in favour of letting bygone be bygones, however in religion it is often about asking God to forgive you for your sins, which seems to me a little self serving.  You repent or otherwise show contrition (through fasting) and God gives you a free pass until the next time.  Be that as it may,  I do feel that the capacity for forgiving others is a fundamental requirement to having a healthy mind (and happy marriage). 

More importantly I wonder why we don't use forgiveness to contribute to healing our societies. I would like to see regular pardons of all our prison population irrespective of whether they recognise their "sins".  The hardest but most beneficial act is to forgive those who don't recognise that they may have been at fault.

So I forgive Fianna and anyone else who happens to be reading this blog for any offence that I might have caused knowingly or not and I am happy to receive forgiveness in return from anyone whether I deserve it or not.