Let's Talk About Words

     "Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliance than justice."                                                -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra     Mercy by definition is compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to harm or punish. When a person has harmed me, an urge to hurt them back, through my words and actions, rises up within me.  Can I offer them mercy or do I punish them?  It feels fair to wound them back, an eye for an eye as the saying goes. Even if they show remorse and say that they want to do better, it is still difficult not to retaliate. No one likes to be hurt or harmed, but where does this retribution get me? I feel bad because I have harmed another; the offender may even feel justified and think "See that is w...

       Voltaire said, "We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies; it is the first law of nature." I know that I am not perfect ; nor are my loved ones. I sometimes joke that the people who are together are the ones that can deal with the other persons bad traits the easiest, that we stay with the people whose stuff we can deal with the most. I suppose all joking aside, I believe that we fall in love with someone that can help us learn about aspects of ourselves, even if that may include some  negative aspects as well.  That maybe is why they say that opposites attract and why our own children can drive us the most crazy of all. We all have issues and negative characteristics. There is no one that is perfect just like no one is perfect for one another. Some of the people that I have felt  hurt me the most in my life probably also feel that I hurt them deeply in return, even if I do not believe that ...