Zoe's Quest: Understanding Forgiveness

Zoe is coming-of-age. She asks her Ethical community to contemplate with her one of the big human quests: FORGIVENESS.  Her advocate, Tasha,  and her mentor, Simba, sit at her sides, on a Sunday morning, May 24, 2015, as she puts the quest forth for reflection in the Memorial Day Colloquy.

Simba, Zoe, Tasha

In the fall, Zoe launched this Coming-of-Age quest through a Speed Deed workshop at the annual Ethical Education Retreat in Stoney Point.  She gathered fall leaves and invited participants to write (in mind or in sharpie) upon them, the names of people for whom forgiveness might be of value -- either from or toward.  Then, she asked that those leaves be released back to nature, in a "fall" gesture modeled by the trees themselves, letting go.

"Letting go" was a recurring theme in response to Zoe's spring colloquy too. Each person present was asked to reflect upon the meaning of forgiveness, via a "merry go around" in which each person gets a minute to "speak from the heart."  People reflected their ability to forgive others, or not to.  Many people reflected upon the very personal nature of forgiveness -- the way in which it is an experience to heal the self of personal grudges and wounds.  Twice, dialogue took place in small groups of two or three. Small powerful mind-shifting conversations seemed to take place around the room.  After the personal and interpersonal natures of forgiveness had been soothed by our opening go-around,  the consciousness of the group seemed to spiral up into higher plains.  More collective concerns. More historical.  More global.

Beyond: "how do I forgive my fellow human"...
lies, "how do I forgive history's harms?"
"How do I forgive natural disasters?"
"How do I forgive my own carbon footprint?"