Forgiveness is a Favor to Man
One high school teacher makes a proposal to his students one day: “Would you like to participate in a life experience?”
Students accept this proposal of their beloved teacher unhesitantly.
“Then,” the teacher said, “Promise me you’ll do what I say.”
Students do this too.
And the teacher goes on:
“Now get ready for your homework tomorrow. Tomorrow you’ll bring a plastic bag and five kilos of potatoes to the school!”
The students have no idea what this is about. But the next morning, all the potatoes and bags are ready on their desks. The teacher told his students who look at him with curious eyes says:
“Now take a potato for every person you don’t want to forgive so far, write that person’s name on that potato and put it in the bag.”
While some students put three to five potatoes in their bags some of them filled to overflowing their bags.
The teacher makes the second explanation his students who are looking at him as though they say “So what now?”:
“For a week, wherever you go, you’ll carry these bags with you. In the bed you sleep, on the bus that you’re on, on your desk when you’re at school, they’ll always be with you.”
A week goes by. As soon as their teachers walks in the classroom, the students who have done what was told begin to complain:
“It is very difficult to carry this heavy bag everywhere.”
“The potatoes start to smell. I swear, people stare at me with strange eyes. ”
We’re both bored and tired.
The teacher smiles and gives his students the following lesson:
“As you see, we are punishing ourselves by not forgetting. We force to carrying heavy loads ourselves in our souls. We think of forgiveness as a gift to the person in front of us, whereas forgiveness, first and foremost, is a favor we do to ourselves.”
And as Schiller says:
“To forgive and forget is the revenge of a good man.”