oops...sorry. Forgive me?

There are times I fall into a sort of a philosophical string. Usually it comes to me as I lie, trying to sleep. I typically just run it through until I finally fall into a slumber and it is forgotten. Sometimes I find it important enough, or interesting enough to remember.

Someone on Facebook posted a picture of my 8th grade graduation class. It is a small and grainy photo but it got a long series of comments going. One idea that came up in this discussion was the idea of a reunion....REALLY???

Surely most of them have much nicer memories of their time spent there than I. Most of them had a much better time there than did I, often at my expense. A few of them have tried to contact me, one trying to get in touch with all of us from that class. All but one were unceremoniously ignored.

A reunion sounds like a waste of time to me. I think I would rather curl up with a good book in the MIDDLE of a fire.

This whole line of thinking brought me to the concepts of apologies and forgiveness. Do any of those people owe me an apology? No, I suppose not. Apologies are generally meaningless anyway. They are fine if you accidentally step on someone's blue suede shoes. It really does not mean much if you try to cut off his feet.

Forgiveness is equally senseless. It is a fool's way of saying "the joke is on me. Do it again."

For children these ideas are good tools for training in humility but as adults they often serve little more purpose than to make one feel like they got away with something. It is much like the criminal who finds God in prison or on his deathbed. Never mind that you ruined lives and families with your activities. You are a good person now because you found a bible?

Sometimes we need to set an example by making people feel bad for doing bad things. You cannot expect to deter bad behaviors by rewarding them with kindness. The self serving nature of the human ne'er do well does not work that way.