Forgiveness

I’ve already lost the thread to it but some friend of Joi Ito, the MIT Media Lab guy who took Epstein’s money, was recently trying to defend his actions. If I caught the gist of the piece, it was that Ito allegedly really believed that Epstein ad been reformed, or at least had been sufficiently frightened by his legal consequences not to re-offend with his raping of children.

I want to get past the question of whether Ito was disingenuous or so blinded by what he wanted (Epstein’s money) that he was willing to fool himself. I want to address the issue of forgiveness. Because even if Ito genuinely believed Epstein was reformed, scared and would never in a million years offend again…he had to forgive him for his past actions.

I was pondering this on my commute this morning.

I do not forgive.

I only rarely forget.

I hold grudges for decades.

I have been known to ruminate and dwell and to steep.

I am trying my best to come up with cases where I’ve suffered a significant harm or insult from someone and managed to forgive them at a later date. I’m not recalling any such thing.

On the other hand, nobody has ever offered me millions of dollars to overlook their past behavior, either.