Forgiveness

    Would you forgive someone who attempted to stab you in the face? What if they didn't remember doing it? What if they didn't remember it, but remember wanting to hurt someone else? The problem of forgiveness is a complicated one. Here is a story about a child who had to forgive a grievous injury.

     Deejay Hunter is a New York student with a talent for basketball. He is tall and spirited, but with a scar on his face hinting at a troubled past. Deejay's stepfather, Derick, is in prison, with a sentence of twenty years for two cases of attempted murder. He has, at Deejay's request and after a long legal battle, been allowed to contact Deejay for one day. Deejay will try to get his stepfather to realize his forgiveness, even though he must live with unsettling childhood trauma and a facial scar. When he was younger, a little younger than 10, his parents were locked in a continual feud. His mother put his alcoholic father down verbally almost every day, and his father retaliated until, one night, he had decided to kill. He grabbed a large knife from the kitchen and snuck down to her room. She immediately knew what was happening, and cried out "I love you!" to delay him. He ended up stabbing her, non-fatally, and he does not remember what happened next, being as he was in a drunken rage. Somehow, Deejay had entered the room and somehow he had gotten stabbed as well. A few years later, Deejay talked to him about what he had done. Derick admits he had intent to hurt his wife, but not Deejay.
    I think this story is a little sad, as it is a half-undeserved incarceration. It is also a heartwarming tale- if humans can forgive each other for stabbing them, what are the limits of human generosity?