Crushed under the weight?

Ben wrote an interesting post last night. It started out wondering why he was purchasing a copy of the Kill Bill DVD, it ended with a contemplation of forgiveness.

Is forgiveness the opposite of vengeance? Google didn't know. Webster didn't know. I'm not sure. Is love the answer? And how do we find that place? Seems like it takes an awful lot more courage that vengeance. And it's a much less of a dramatic story arc. But it seems like a much happier ending.

I don't see a lot of movies, and certainly not the "horror" type, but for some strange reason I found myself in the line for Kill Bill on it's opening night last year. I sat through that one with a few friends in DC and it made an impression on me. First - being of the old shool kung fu ilk - the fight scenes where horrible, just horrible. And if anyone could look more ridiculous than Uma Thurman trying to weild a semitar, I've yet to see it.

But as Ben mentions, the movie was primarily about vengeance, and in making you feel that emotion - it is extremely effective. There were several times in that movie when I felt absolute rage on behalf of Uma's character. She had been attacked and nearly killed at her own wedding and she had been abused while she was in a coma for goodness sakes. Several children in the movie watched their parents be murdered right before their eyes. Vengeful feelings pulsed through my veins - I have a hard time taking entertainment lightly.

But to Ben's questions. I think that when someone gets hurt like that, whether emotional or physical or whatever, there is a price to pay on the other side of that. It's like physics yo. There is an equal and opposite force created when someone gets messed with.

I heard something a few weeks ago about forgiveness. The dude said that someone has to take it on the chin. If you forgive someone, you have to swallow the pain, if you get vengeance, they pay. Unfortunately neither of those choices seem scalable. If you get too much of either you're bound to be dealing with more issues than you started out with.

Is forgiveness the opposite of vengeance? Yeah I think so. Are they the only two options? I think Ben was onto something when he kept the questions coming. Is Love the answer, I think it is, but certainly no understanding of that word that we throw around every day.

If there is indeed a burden to be bourn for every offense, that's a lot of burden to be bourn. It weighs on me to even think about it. This is one of the reasons I've hesitated to see the Passion.