In my ignorance, I hurt you. Unable to erase this moment, can I plead forgiveness?

Your pain filled eyes held hands with kind words and burnt a chasm in my brain. I was twelve and your pain continues to twist my heart sixty years later. I hurt you. I saw it. I wish I had known better but I didn’t. How could I? I was a child of an era that judged single mothers as deviant and not to be trusted.

My mother sent the message delivered by me. I was twelve, your daughter was my dear friend and I was informing you that I no longer would be her friend. I had told her before you but you had wanted to understand it clearly. The words you used fail me but I have not forgotten the depth of pain in your eyes.

The memory rose today and pierced me once again with its brutality. (Karma couples sadness with wisdom.) If the details were shared, I am sure many would scoff at my depth of responsibility, but who will change this world’s violence unless I understand its many faces, acknowledge it in myself and learn a better way.

Violence towards each other is the main cause of pain for us humans. Although pain is inevitable in a turbulent world, how we hurt each other trumps all causes. We can and do inflict all manner of horror on one another.

I am grateful for each one of us who understands this truth and commits themselves to a conscious reduction of harms’ imprint and chooses more skillful negotiation and co-operation. If it were not for these noble people, the human race would now be extinct.

Reverently, there have been many. Actually, they have surpassed the primitives in numbers and have protected humanity magnificently. I am indebted to their intelligence in elevating our numbers, otherwise, we would have either destroyed each other or remained in small numbers.

As beneficial as it was, it is this success’ consequence that threatens humanity’s existence. The diversity in culture, language and beliefs are beyond comprehension. We are all innocents in a complex system of choice.

Through no fault or intention, we confuse and terrorize each other.

Negotiation has become more difficult with each passing generation. As we expand globally, more confusion ensues. Cultures, language and beliefs collide and we harm each other reacting to terrorizing uncertainty.

That day, when you embraced my violence with kindness, you taught me there is another way to interact when violent ignorance is on offer.