Forgiveness

Today I awoke to the morning news and they had a story about a man who had lost his leg to a drunk driver.  That in it of itself is a story.  However, the story was not about that.  The  story was about how this man forgave this woman for what she did.  He read a victim impact statement in court that was short, all of about 2 minutes.  However, in that statement he told the woman that he knows that she is suffering, her family is suffering and he forgives her for what she did.  With  that, the man then gave this woman a hug.  I sat there for a moment in silence.  "WOW!" I thought.  What an incredible human being he is.  To be able to forgive this woman who left him with only one leg.  This man has three children and although he has an artificial leg, he will never be able to fully enjoy running around and being a dad with these three children.  This woman took something so very precious away from him and he forgave her.  It got me thinking to other things.  For instance, with the latest on the Jesse James and Tiger Woods infidelity scandals, do their wives forgive?  And with the 15'th Anniversary of the Susan Smith Story - you know, the woman that killed her two kids by making the car roll in to the river.  Does her ex husband forgive?  Without getting  too religious, I know that the bible tells us we must forgive.  However, I am not sure in all of these instances, I would be able to.  The infidelity - definitely not.  I think any one that cheats and says they have an addiction is using that as a cop out.  I do not beleive there is such a thing as a sexual addiction.  And if anybody, I don't care who they are EVER did anything to any one of my kids, I know  I could never forgive them. I mean,  I flew off the handle when my oldest came home and tells me his teacher made a spectacle of him in front of the class.  Forgiveness is a powerful thing.  They say that you can forgive, but you never forget.  I'm sorry, you do me wrong your not getting my forgiveness and you can be damn sure I'm not going to forget about it.  I look at people who are able to forgive certain  awful things and I admire them in a certain way.  It is truly hard to forgive and to be able to do it, I mean really do it, you have to be a very  strong person.  On the other hand, people that forgive  others that do them wrong ie cheating, they are just plain old stupid!  Have more respect for yourself!!!!
o.k. o.k. that was daily rant for the day :)  Happy Monday!