Hallelujah Anyway: Anne Lamott on Reclaiming Mercy and Forgiveness as the Root of Self-Respect in a Vengeful World

"Mercy is the conscious choice to be kind when one can be cruel — without cruelty, there is no mercy." A concept, book, and article about them which itself is a good read. Secular is secondary and does not matter - except to allow for deeper exploration to face, confront, take responsibility and action without derailing by invoking deities that are cited and ignored. "...a slim, powerful book about the ways in which we harden against life and the ways in which we can soften through forgiveness, kindness, and all those splendors of spirit which, in denying others, we deny ourselves." The book itself I'll skip. But the thesis is valid and important. The article is excellent, these clips are only from the beginning. For families, everyone, John. Message, not necessarily any method, is my point. "But hardly any word is more unnerving yet more urgently needed today than mercy — a word seeped in scripture yet almost biologically encoded into human nature; a word deceptive in its seeming softness, for beneath its surface radiance lurks a dark core: the very concept of mercy only exists because of and as a counterpoint to our capacity for cruelty. Mercy is the conscious choice to be kind when one can be cruel — without cruelty, there is no mercy." "This is why the redemptive and rebellious practice of mercy is so immensely needed today, in a world that serves us evidence of cruelty daily, and its practice is what Anne Lamott sets out to reclaim in Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy (public library) — ..." Do read more?... We need to.
Source:
Hallelujah Anyway: Anne Lamott on Reclaiming Mercy and Forgiveness as the Root of Self-Respect in a Vengeful World
http://ift.tt/2oh4B4i
“Kindness toward others and radical kindness to ourselves buy us a shot at a warm and generous heart, which is the greatest prize of all.”