My brain has been in a whirl since the first interview last Thursday and, here I am, the afternoon before the final Life Stories Program interview. I think I have relived most of my life in the last week. There are two big things I can identify about this thinking process. One. I have lived through, and can remember, many significant events of the 20th and 21st Century. I know I will have to blog my whole list and the memories each event evoked. Wow! A LOT has happened in the past 80 years. Two. Revisionist or Selective History is alive and well.
My children, their children and others to come are the audience for this interview. I have chosen to omit the most painful, the most hurtful past and current events that crossed through my memory this week. It is not because I do not think they are important. It is not because I do not think they have been elemental in shaping who I am today. It is because it would serve no purpose; it would change nothing and would surely hurt some of the readers.
Many years ago I first heard the expression, "You can forgive but you do not forget." In a recent email from a newly found cousin he included his understanding of that phrase. He wrote, "In order for a person to forgive he has to understand that forgiving doesn't mean that they are wrong and the other person is right but it means that the relationship with the other person is more important that their ego.."
Reason enough to along with skipping the hurts and nasties of the past.
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