Guilt, regret, trust and forgiveness.

Got healthy again a couple of days ago, had a weird combination of viruses, a double-hit. Didn't last very long. Back to reading.

Guilt and regret, what do they imply? Regret implies you question an action, to the point of wishing you hadn't done it. In the instance someone does wrong to you, up to when are they guilty ? Guilt in the sense of punishment, not in someone's own feeling of guilt. What kind of actions need punishment as retribution? The legislation believes punishment should ensue if a human being does an action that is detrimental to another human being while the guilty party is fully aware of what they're doing, i.e. Murder vs Manslaughter. But, do criminals question themselves about their behaviour after their actions? Maybe that's why some criminals never regret an action, because they never questionned themselves, due to various reasons, most of which I will never understand in this world.

And what about lesser wrongdoings? If a person I was briefly aquainted to hurts me, in whatever way hurt can be perceived, does it have the same weight compared to a close family member, or a spouse? Then maybe we have to introduce the whole aspect of trust in this. We trust someone until it is broken, and when it is broken, the perpetrator and the victim (used loosely) are distanced, for a while, until they meet and exchange. That is inevitable if progression is to be made for both parties. Trust is a valuable essence, one we play with and toy around because we can. Until trust is broken, it never shines its true colors. That is maybe why family members trust each other; because their trust has been tested many times.

The relationshipes we wish to keep are the strongest ones: we work to make them work. But sometimes it is very hard to rekindle trust, or simply love, in a relationship. Then comes another human essence, forgiveness. To a stranger that looks at us the wrong way, we walk away, but to a spouse that hits us every time he hits the bottle, or whatever God-damned reason someone might let themselves be illusionned with, we effortlessly try to make everything alright again. There are relationships that will not work, and some that will never stop growing, but the words of my best friend Martin has always been true, in my estimation and understanding:

The meaning of forgiveness is not necessarily to forget about another person's
misdeeds, or to ignore something, to rationalize. It means to forget about
another tomorrow, a tomorrow that might've been, a better tomorrow.

We have to swallow it, and let it go. It's hella hard, but if we keep onto something, it'll never leave.