Forgiving is not easy
The recent death of Malcolm Fraser reminds us of so many moments in time.
Whether you supported his government or not, he is clearly now admired by many for some great deeds and great leadership, a number of which have only been acknowledged since retiring from political life.
Key to the major political storm is that Gough Whitlam was able to forgive Malcolm Fraser – a popular comment this week in much of the press. That’s enough for me.
Forgiving is not easy though.
And the fact that the two former prime ministers became friends later in life is a remarkable thing.
Some things are forgiveable reasonably quickly. Some things take longer to forgive than others. Some things are unforgiveable.
A child should always be forgiven and is never to blame.
With children there’s always a reason – coming down with a virus or unwell, tired and cranky, temper tantrums, and other ups and downs. I firmly believe that no child is naughty or grumpy just for the sake of it and mostly it is because they can’t understand or articulate what’s happening to them. This applies to adolescents too.
With our children forgiveness is easy; between adults we battle a bit more. I know I’ll try to keep Gough in mind as those challenges arise.
Do you have a forgiveness story (or challenge) to share with us?
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“Malcolm Fraser bust” by Timeshift9 at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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