~ 8th graders
There are many different ways to
think about forgiveness. When we think of forgiveness we think of something
done wrong. You
should always forgive when someone does wrong because if you don’t you will
hold on to your memories. While its ok to remember what was done to you, it is important to forgive so you can
accept it and go on with your life and not worry about it. “The thing about
forgiving is that after forgiving only then can you start to heal. If you don’t
forgive you are filled with hate and anger.” You can learn to forgive from
songs, and books, quotes and other kinds of souses.
In the song by Don Henley The Heart of the Matter you should listen to this line.
“They let you down and hurt your pride better put it all behind you; life goes
on you keep carrin’ that anger, it’ll eat you up
inside.” Don is trying to tell you that you should leave it all behind and go
on with your life. He wants you to forgive the people that let you down and
keep on going with your life. “It's time to get down
to the heart of the matter. And I think it's about forgiveness? Even if you don't love me any more.” This quote will change the way you think
about forgiveness because you can go on with your life and not hold on to the
thing that hurts you. When People get angry they normally do some thing they
would regret.
In the quote “If we
practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will
be toothless and blind” Gandhi is trying to tell us that everyone in the world
does not have to be the same. When someone does something wrong it is not hard
to forgive them for what they have done. If you hold on to what they have done,
and try to get revenge, you will never forget it. Just get over it and go on
with your life. Revenge will put you on the same level as the other person.
In
the movie about the
In the passage
“Forgiveness…What’s it For?” Larry
James talks about how forgiving helps you in your life. He talks about
how forgiving will bring a sense of peace and well-being. He also talked about the misconception that
“forgiving the offense, such as an affair, means that you condone it.” Larry is
trying to say that you don’t have to always agree with what was done but you
can still forgive it. “Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.”
Forgiveness is
important because if we did not forgive other people we would always hold on to
things and never forget them. “ If you live one day at a time, you already know that somedays you get a lot
done and some days you don't, but every day what persists in your memory is
your overall mood and it leads right into the mood of the next day.”(anonymous)
If you don’t forgive people you’ll always be angry or upset about your own
injustices.
“We often think of
forgiveness as something that someone who has done us wrong must ask of us.”
said Larry James, who wrote “Forgiveness…What’s it For?”
By forgiving someone you gain respect for yourself. After you forgive
someone you feel as if you have power and empathy for others. Forgiveness
can be shown is many ways. Some examples are songs, movies, articles, and
quotes.
The article, “Forgiveness… What’s it For?” states
that, “Forgiveness is a gift to yourself.” Forgiveness means to accept an
apology from someone for their wrong doing. Many people misinterpret it
and think that forgiveness is something someone must give you. When you
forgive someone you are accepting what they did and then moving on.
Forgiveness is the key to life.
You can learn about
forgiveness from the movie, The
The quote by Mahatma
Gandhi, “If we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the
whole world will be blind and toothless.” explains why forgiveness is
important. The quote is explaining that if no one forgave, the world
would be a lonely, negative place. If someone does something to you and
you try to get revenge on them you are just making matters worse. Forgiveness
will resolve your problems. Everyone knows that two wrongs do not
make a right, and that you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.
The song The Heart
of the Matter by Don Henley shows you that it is your choice to forgive
someone. “If you keep carrying that anger; it will eat you up inside.” is
a line from the song that explains why you should forgive, and then you will
feel relieved. You should forgive because it makes you feel good, and
your anger seems to go away after you do it. Forgiveness is not just for
adults. Anyone can forgive.
Paul Boese
said, “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the
future.” That quote explains what forgiveness is all about. When
you forgive someone you aren’t changing the past, but creating a better future
for yourself and others because you are moving on and accepting what
happened. Thomas Szasz said, “The stupid
neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but
do not forget.” This is true. You should not forget after you
forgive someone. You should just accept what they did and learn from it.
There is so much more
to forgiveness then a lot of people think. Forgiveness is having the power to look
at the problem differently and change your mind. At first forgiveness seems
like the hardest thing to do. When you forgive someone for something they did,
no matter how big or small it is. Either way, after you forgive it makes you
feel important and proud of yourself. They always say to forgive and forget,
but sometimes it’s not that easy. They also say forgiving is the hardest part.
Forgetting is one of the hardest things to do after you have just forgiven
someone. People can learn about forgiveness in Lyrics, Films, Quotes and so
much more.
The song “The Heart of
the Matter” By Don Henley is about forgiveness. The words in this song all
represent forgiveness but one part in the song, are the words “You keep
carrying that anger; it’ll eat you up inside.” That means tome that if you stay
angry with someone and hold on to it, it will hurt you the most on the inside.
What the song is mainly trying to put out is that you have to have empathy to
forgive and people do it everyday. When you choose to forgive, you have the
power to stand up and say I am going to get through this. But then sometimes if
you forgive it makes you feel bad for forgiving them when what they did really
hurt you and then you feel terrible because you forgave them when they hurt you
so bad. But after a while when everything is all said and one, you realize that
it was for the better and you let go of that anger and don’t feel bad anymore.
In Larry James’ article, he
tells about how to forgive someone whether they need to know it or
not. Larry James says “ My thoughts on
forgiveness suggest that you focus on offering forgiveness TO the person who as
done you wrong.” He says that it’s simple to forgive if you set your mind to
it. It’s not something you do for yourself and for no one else. You shouldn’t
have to feel like if you don’t tell them you forgive them, then you can’t move
on. The hardest thing is hoping they will forgive… but they don’t have to for
you to make yourself feel better. Instead of forgiving for them and not having
them care forgive for yourself and build your self-esteem up.
In the Mahatma Gandhi
quote “If we practiced an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the
whole world will be blind and toothless.” (October 2, 1869 -
January 30, 1948.) That quote means a lot, to
many different people. If you do walk around referring to his quote getting
revenge all the time, you would hurt yourself and have so much more to lose
that way. You would go around fighting each other all day and would have no
time to love or care, or even have a relationship with anyone, because you
would be so busy walking around hurting and judging everyone you cam in contact
with. So you can’t walk around using “An eye for an eye”, that’s wrong and it
all actually it makes no sense, to use the quote like that.
In the Tulsa Lynching men
and women who survived, were still devastated. Not all of them did, but some of
them would not forgive. The ones, who did not forgive, walked around with anger
and hatred all their lives. The ones who forgave knew that they would feel
better about it if they moved on. They forgave and that was a lot to do with
them because they were treated awfully and it was wrong but that’s how they
thought to handle it. The African-Americans were burned, and murdered in there
own town.
All of these perspectives
on forgiveness matter. If you don’t forgive you are letting yourself believe
that you don’t have the courage or power to believe in yourself. When all of
this happened the survivors or anyone who was there for it tried to forgive which is not the easiest thing in the world to do. But in
the end many realized that they couldn’t hold a grudge forever and if they let
it build up inside they would never let out their feelings and feel better
about themselves. Many people were effected
by this, but they did forgive. They will never forget but they did forgive.
"If we really want to love
we must learn how to forgive"
~ Mother Theresa
What is the point in forgiveness? How
can we forgive someone who has done something so wrong and mean? The reason that
we forgive is to let what ever happened go, not to keep all that hatred in your
self. We can learn about forgiveness through diaries, historic events, songs,
written sources, quotes, and life experiences.
The song “Heart of the Matter” by the
Eagle’s Don Henley tells us that forgiveness is the way of life. This song took
Don practically his whole life to write it and about 4 minutes to sing it
because it is so hard to figure out what forgiveness means, and when and how to
use forgiveness. The song mostly talks about his girlfriend how she left him
and he says that he will still forgive her even if she doesn’t love him any
more. He tells us that forgiveness is teaching him how to live and go through
this rough time and if you keep all of that anger in side of you it will eat
you up in side. What he means by this is that you will be so mad so upset for
so long you wont know how to live your life any longer.
One of the
most historic events that describes the power of
forgiveness is “The Tulsa Lynching of 1921.” The whole thing started with the
problem that whites thought that the blacks were so different than them, that
the blacks did not deserve to live in this world. Then a mob broke out in
One of the
best written sources I think is out of the book How To
Really Love The One Your With under “Forgiveness what’s it for?” By Larry James. In his story he talks about his thoughts of
forgiveness. He thinks that it is a gift you really give to your self it is not
something you do for someone else. ‘It is like letting it go” he says. That’s
exactly what I said also. He also states that “when some one does you wrong
they apologize and ask you to forgive them. This is generally because they want
you back into there life and if you say ok you have forgave them and have put
it behind you and can move on with your life now. Some times forgiving is the
greatest revenge because it is like your saying to them yeah whatever I don’t
care what you did, thought, or said. Just like Isaac Friedman said “Forgiveness
is the sweetest revenge.” He means that if some one is trying to get you angry
and you forgive them it is like you don’t care what they said about you or what
ever they did it is coming around to bite them right in the but.
Mahatma Gandhi says in his quote “if
we practice and eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth soon the whole world
will be blind and toothless.” This helps explain forgiveness. “The weak can
never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong” this quote also by
Mahatma Gandhi means that the weak can never forgive because the strong has
enough power to forgive and let it go. The strong also have the power to move
on. These quotes also deal with revenge. Most of the weak have a hard time
because they might have problems with there life so in order for the weak to
get all of that hatred out they have to be mean and get revenge on the people
that have done something wrong to them.
In the diary of Ann frank Ann is
a 14 year old Jewish girl who was part of the Holocaust and her and her family
went into hiding while the Germans where breaking into peoples homes and
forcing them to go with them get on a train and they are sent to concentration
camps. Later after two and a half years of hiding they where
found and sent to camps. And after all that horror that the Germans put
through Ann forgave them and believed that they where still good at heart.
Forgiveness is a way to let every
thing go and forget about every thing that has happened go. It also helps us
move on and not let whatever happen hold us back from
the future. And as Ann said in her diary “I think that all people are good at
heart just afraid to show it. She is right because even though you or someone
has done something wrong, and every one has done
something wrong before. They can change and realize that they still have the
power to do good in the world. As I have grown up
through the years I have been told and I have realized that forgiveness is the
way of life. I say that the more we forgive the faster we grow up. As my 8th
grade social studies teacher Mr. Chase has always says “we have to grow up
don’t let others make choices and don’t let others hold you back.” We have to
learn to do all that we can do, work to our full potential and you can’t do
that if you have hatred in side that keeps nagging you.
Forgiveness is an excuse to your own
mistakes or faults. It is important to
forgive for yourself, and your choice to forgive should be a decision made by
your heart. Even though saying you’re
going to forgive someone, and doing it is two different things, in the end, all
your bottled up anger will soon be gone.
You can gain self-esteem and feel a lot better afterwards. “Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet
sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain. This means that even though someone stepped
on the violet, it still forgave him or her by shedding a fragrance on it. You can learn about forgiveness from very
powerful sources like articles, songs or lyrics, films, and quotes.
The quote, “ If
we practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world
will be blind and toothless,” by Mahatma Gandhi means that if we don’t practice
forgiving and follow through with our forgiveness, then there would be no
justice for ourselves. If we never
forgive for the sake of forgiving, then everyone could end up blind and
toothless.
In the film, The Tulsa Lynching Act,
there was a black man who slipped and fell, so the black man grabbed her so he
would not fall on her, but she, Sarah Page, screamed. But what started out as a harmless accident turned
into a huge lie from yellow journalism.
The article went in the newspaper, and it said that the black man, who
fell, assaulted the white young girl.
But then after this, a riot broke out and 100’s of blacks and whites
died, giving an approximate total of around 300 that died. But, around 800 citizens were admitted to a
hospital. Toward the end of the film,
the blacks, all gathered around a Christmas tree and sang carols. A leader of the black community stated,
“There is no room in our hearts for hatred,” and in the end, it proved that
everyone was just happy to be alive and was with their family and friends. The forgiveness shown was very powerful for
the whites and the blacks. We can learn
that there are no reasons to hate while we could be forgive.
The excerpts from the article,
“Forgiveness…What’s it for?” discusses facts about how forgiveness is NOT
complicated; and that it’s simple.
People have many misconceptions about forgiveness; they think, “The
belief that forgiving the offense, means the you can
condone it.” But that is not true. We can only forgive “for what we know is
wrong.” Forgiveness can also be the key
to a better future if you forgive for yourself, and only yourself.
Don Henley wrote a very powerful song
called, “The Heart of the Matter.” It
took
“Forgiveness is a letting go. It is freeing of you.” One quote by Lessons for Living is very powerful
and may change your opinion on Forgiveness.
“The forgiveness choice is, do you want to be
bitter or better? Keep holding on to the
pain and you will be bitter. Make a
better choice, and let go. Learn and try
to be a more forgiving person.” “Forgiveness is a truth in this world that
needs more practice, appreciation and application in our lives”. Whenever you say, “you will never
forgive.” Then about 60 seconds later
who is feeling bad, or hurt, is the answer,” You?”
What does it mean to forgive? To
forgive is to heal and help you, not some one else. The main thing to be gained
is that what happened won’t hold you back as you get older and move on. Think
about this, will you waste any more time being mad at something that happened
in the past. Even if the other person doesn’t forgive you, you do it for
yourself. Forgiveness can change the out come of your life. You also have to
choose to forgive. You can’t just say you forgive when you are still angry.
There are a lot of documents on forgiveness. There are songs, documents,
quotes, and movies that are all on the same subject.
“If the world
practices an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Soon the world will be blind and
toothless.” This quote is by Mahatma Gandhi. An eye for an eye means to get
revenge against somebody, same as a tooth for a tooth means to get revenge as
well. It means that if we keep trying to get revenge that will make it so there
is no forgiveness in the world, so we just live on revenge and nothing else. We
would teach our children nothing but hatred. This would defiantly change the
way we would look at the world if all we did were get revenge. We would just be
held back our whole life. We wouldn’t be able to move forward. Anne Frank said
that she believed everybody had some good in them no matter what they did to
other people. And that was during the Holocaust when they did nothing but kill
because the Nazis believed that the Jews weren’t perfect. Hitler wanted to
create the perfect race and he thought that the Jews were preventing that.
Don Henley’s Song “The Heart of the
Matter” is all about forgiveness. It’s telling about a man who lost his
girlfriend to some other guy. He thinks about all the problems they went
through together even though she left him. But he forgives himself for losing
her to someone else. When he was trying to figure out what happened he kept
coming back to forgiveness. He thinks that he has to learn some things all over
again. “There’s a yearning undefined and people filled with rage.” How can you
love some one when all you think about is rage and nothing else? He must have
had some rage when his girlfriend left him for someone else that he didn’t
know.
The
Larry James tries to explain what forgiveness
is in his article “Forgiveness…What’s it for?” “We often think that we need to
be asked for forgiveness,” is what he says. The person who wronged you should
be offered forgiveness and not the other way around. That is what forgiveness
is about. Peace of mind is a gift that you can give yourself when you forgive
someone or something. People think you should ask for forgiveness. You ask if
you are willing to waste everything you have further on the matter on something
that happened when you thought it was wrong when the other person thought
differently. A better future is the thing you have when you forgive. A
challenge for most people is to forget all destructive thoughts. You grow
confidence when you survive through a lot of pain that another person caused.
Whether the person who wronged you wants you back, apologizes, or changes his
or her way is what most people think forgiveness is. The other person will have
control over you if you don’t forgive. Non-Forgiveness keeps you in a struggle
when you are willing you to forgive you bring peace to your mind. Forgiveness
gives you hope and strength for the future.
“Forgiveness is the sweetest
revenge.” This quote was by Isaac Friedman. The best revenge is when you
forgive when the other person wants you to get angry. When you forgive they
react and it is the best reaction that is the best revenge anyone can get.
Imagine their faces when they find out you won’t go on in the matter. I think
it’s the best reaction when they get angry with you. Thomas Szasz
said, “The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the
wise forgive but do not forget.” The stupid are held back with the thought of
revenge and nothing of. The naïve forgive but they forget what happened then
they become victims from the same person.
Forgiveness is important because it
can lead to peace of mind and a better future. You can also move forward in
your life. Non-forgiveness is the enemy because it holds you back. People can
hurt you, as many times as they want, but if you forgive, the other person
doesn’t have power over you. They could probably kill someone by accident if
you stay angry with someone for to long. Or something else that is bad could
happen. If you never learn to forgive you will be stuck in the past for the
rest of your life and never learn about what good you can learn from the world
or the people around you. The things that can be learned from forgiveness are
that you never know what good it can do you unless you do it. Anne Frank can
teach us a lot about forgiveness. Anne did a lot of forgiving when she was
alive. She forgave the Nazis even though they were the ones that killed her
during the Holocaust. They killed almost everybody in her family except her
father. I don’t think I could forgive someone who killed my family even if it
was an accident, but I would at least try to forgive them. Forgiveness is an
important thing in your life. You should keep it that way.
Forgiveness means a lot of different things to different people.
To some people forgiveness does not mean that you have to reconcile with
someone who badly treated you. To forgive isn’t an easy thing. It takes time
and empathy. To forgive is a very powerful choice that you can make. You can
learn about Forgiveness from songs, movies, poems, quotes, and articles.
You can learn
a lot about forgiveness from a song. The song “ The
Heart of the Matter” by Mike Cambell, Don Henley, and
J.D. Souther describes that forgiveness doesn’t mean
that you have to love that person again, but it does mean that you should just
go on with your life and not worry a lot about what happened. In the song it
states that if you don’t let your anger go and you carry it on with you it will
eat you up inside, for example if you are angry it hurts other people around
you. Forgiveness means a lot of things,
In some cases it means that you have to like that person again and let
everything go, and then in another case you just have to be nice to that person
and try to forget about it but not fully forget about it. When you say that you
forgive somebody it takes a lot of empathy, power, and choices.
You can learn
a lot about forgiveness from movies. The Tulsa Lynching of 1921: A Hidden Story is one of the movies that
explains what forgiveness means, in the movie it explains that the worst of
things can happen like homes being burned to the ground, women and
children were killed, dead bodies were
dragged behind cars and they were hung from light posts, but people still learn
to leave it behind them. In the movie, everyone has a very hard time forgiving
because of the horrible things that happened but some people learned to forgive
and not let it eat them up inside. In the movie a leader of the black community
says “There is no room in our hearts for hatred.” That quote means that you
shouldn’t carry hatred on forever but you should carry on happiness.
Mahatma
Gandhi once said, “ If we practice an eye for eye and
a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless”. This
quote means that you need to forgive so you don’t lose everything. If you don’t
forgive then you will never be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give
yourself not to someone else.
Forgiveness is something that lies in your heart, not just some thought
in your head.
The purpose of forgiveness is to make somebody
that did something bad feel that everything is okay and that they can move on
with their lives. You can also learn to forgive yourself if you do something
bad, and you feel horrible about it. If you forgive yourself you can move on
with your life also. Forgiveness makes
you imagine a better future for yourself.
We only forgive what we know to be not okay, If
we know that something is okay then we don’t have to forgive anyone.
Forgiveness overall
is a very good thing. Everyone feels good after someone has forgiven them. Everyone doesn’t need to forgive but if you
don’t forgive then you need to move on with your life. Forgiveness builds confidence, and it makes
you believe that you can survive the pain and you can grow from it. Forgiveness is more than saying sorry.
Forgiveness comes from the heart. When you forgive someone you suddenly feel a
relief, everyone wants to feel that way.
“The weak can never
forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”