Honor’s Road
Leave a commentApril 18, 2016 by phicks2012
I have, in general, a forgiving heart. I have proven often in the past that I am willing to give those who hurt my feelings or treat me poorly multiple chances to remain my friend — as long as I am not utterly convinced that the injury done was deliberate. Fair’s fair, after all, and we all screw up. I’ve got to say though that targeted destruction is another matter entirely, inviting nuclear annihilation. 😉
If I honestly believe that pain was caused and injury done to me or to someone I care about with deliberation and intent, I have to admit that I do not forgive, for all that I’m told I ought to. My bad, I guess, but there it is.
People who spread libel or slander, steal goods, and otherwise injure others thinking to prosper thereby — especially when their actions are totally unnecessary to survival — tend to be generally lacking in every trait I respect while being generously gifted with those traits I most despise, so I have to ask myself why in the world, or in any rational universe, I would want to associate with people like that. The answer, of course, is that I wouldn’t. Anyone who says they would needs serious therapy and I’d like to offer them an awesome deal on some swamp land in Arizona.
You can recommend forgiveness, and I do understand its merits when I believe the people involved to be redeemable. If I do not, believing instead that their natures are simply lacking in nobility and honor, I will choose instead to cut them from my life. So there! 😉 Whack!!
This poem was written with this in mind.
Honor’s Road
To choose forgiveness, we are told by faith
And scripture, is the better, nobler path,
When falsehoods gather, leaving truth a wraith
All insubstantial, and we lean to wrath,
Our hearts, so we are told, should not anneal.
No, rather should we bitterness release
And give the raging breach a chance to heal
That we can, shunning anger, be at peace.
But when false witness, violence and theft
Cause agony and loss to those we love,
Or leave us standing bitter and bereft
Should we forgive the ministers thereof,
When with deliberation pain was caused?
In such forgiveness would we not allow
The transit of true justice to be paused,
And with more chance to wound the foes endow?
To saintly virtue I cannot aspire
For when I meet with villains, on the road
Of life, in faith, I cannot then retire,
And give to them free passage; leave bestowed
To go their way and injure with foul deeds
And calumny those who are true of heart.
I cannot quiet stand while honor bleeds,
And wickedness makes mockery an art.
And those who, with a will, may think to rise
At the expense of truth, flung well away,
Eschewing honor, them I must despise
For they will every kindly soul betray.
I will not step aside to let them pass,
Or welcome infamy to my abode,
And if they slink as serpents to the grass
At least they’ll not be met on Honor’s road.
[15 March 2016]
