When 'Sorry' Never Ends Reconciliation Never Happens
Imagine you offended your wife 200 years ago. Okay, okay, imagine your FRIEND offended his wife 200 years ago.
And imagine she confronted him and he issued a genuine, heart felt apology.
Rather than forgive your friend, she insists that he sets aside a day every year for the rest of his life to say sorry all over again. Would you call that reconciliation?
The point made about ‘where is the forgiveness side of the equation’ is one very few are brave enough to ask. When I was much younger I remember the regular announcements by the NZ govt of ‘full and final’ settlements. Except they never were ‘full’ nor were they ‘final’.
As you correctly stated James, these pronouncements of reconciliation are never enough but rather are a perpetual source of ongoing division. The grievance gravy train will never reach its destination because each subsequent generation feels the need to address past wrongs afresh thus ensuring that one of the guaranteed generational legacies that is handed down is the veritable chip on the shoulder.
Lots of apologies. Not a lot of forgiveness. No moving forward.
It's an industry of perpetual grievance with no forgiveness . It is the intolerant orthodoxy.