Scrutiny Under the Lamp

Therefore his [Torrente's] diary, though undoubtedly helpful in studying his character, is peppered with several passages that require a certain scrutiny, or at least an ability to separate fact from fiction.’

At the same ‘diary site’:

The funeral is remembered in Wolfe’s poem, The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna. Here are the first two and the last two verses.

NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O’er the grave where our hero we buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.
. . .
But half of our heavy task was done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone with his glory.
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Perhaps literature is just this: the reflective internal dialogue and argumentation going on inside each one of us.  I also like the reference to memory as the means of forgiveness and as another noted, as a gift from God. 

We tend to think of forgiveness as that static instant where we say, “I forgive you,” but just as it takes months to heal from a broken bone, it may take much longer to heal from a broken heart or spirit. We understand that a man with a severed leg must undergo many transformations of how he deals with his world, physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially and spiritually. 

However, as a culture we do not accord this same respectful understanding to those with the ‘invisible wounds.’  Rather the struggling individual, in almost every case, faces the pain and suffering of an additional unjust ‘stigma.’  This makes me intensely angry.  It is because only that person who bravely ‘agrees’ to the sucking leech positivism is ‘rewarded’ with the vacuous, “Oh, you’re so brave and heroic to just let it go and move on.”  If this were a Greek drama play there would be the aside here of “Whew, now we can move on.”  And this in the face of grave injustice done by the perpetrator, who more often than not goes forward blithely harming others to the very end.  The foundations of this stubborn stance is fear.  Facing these things head on means having to deal with very unsettling issues inside every human being, every family and every social entity, including the church.

But we have to forgive!  That does not ever mean we condone.  It does not mean that the action should go unpunished, much less allowing the person to continue in the name of a false ‘peace.’  It does not mean that a person who demands justice is doing something wrong.  Avoidance of these issues because they are painful and unsettling to our lives or some silly prestigious concept we hope sustains an empty status quo is as evil as the original act.  It is moral cowardice and is reprehensible.  Worse to me is that those who resist the truth and justice needed for redemptive healingare exhibiting the need of absolute entrenchment to ‘save face’ before their peers. Even worse many just aren’t interested because it takes up their time and energy.

 There must be reparation and amendment for a harm done.  No healing for all members of the community can take place without it.  The victims’ relationship in community has been wounded or even destroyed.  It is changed forever. The community in the name of truth and love must defend and help heal those victimized.  How in the world can that occur if massive denial is the standard answer to such things.   Get over it just doesn’t cut it no matter how pretty the sentimental slogans make it sound.  Those most vehement for the ‘forget it and move on’ mode betray their stance in their nervous aversion to the truth.  They truly are terrified of having to bear the stigma which actually does belong to the whole human family.  For it must be asked, what in the human community has allowed this pain and suffering, and what can each ‘I’ do to prevent its occurrence again.

This particular aspect of culture today occurs along with the unwritten code of prioritizing sins.  Of course, it depends upon which neighborhood one lives in as to which sin rates the highest on the ‘local list.’  Purposeful ignorance of these powerful lists of social etiquette cannot be excused either in these circles.  It is the absurd, surreal ‘honor among thieves’ mentality.