July 31, 2011
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An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker Sunday in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.
The man waited on his knees and wept.
“What do you want to do now?” the doctor asked the 34-year-old woman, whose own face was severely disfigured in the 2004 attack.
“I forgave him, I forgave him,” she responded, asking the doctor to spare him at the last minute in a dramatic scene broadcast on Iran’s state television.
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Thank you
.
Oh.
Thank you.
I read this and felt glad to live somewhere that the worst a boy can do to me mostly is break my heart.
Oh. I can’t find words for this.
Deron. Here this story is, moving down the line of posts to be swallowed by the archives, and still it moves in me as I work on the house–doing work alone that leaves no room for anything but slight attention and deep reflection. It’s so rare to see the understanding that harm returned for harm is the easiest choice to make. And recovery is never easy, never turn key, never a matter of math or basic symmetry. The heroic is not owned by the capacity for violence, and justice served by way of violence is justice rendered abstract, a quantity deemed satisfactory without judgment, valued for its closing of a book. This woman showed herself to be more significant, in one act, than all the cultural sanctioning of her tormentor(s).
Daryl, Paster Scott (now out of the ministry, having faced the insurmountable obstacle. Danny and I no longer members of that church) said something like “Christ taught, turning the other cheek is no act of submission. It is an act of defiance.” It doesn’t accept the status quo.
I hope I said what I meant.
I believe that there is a time to turn the other cheek and a time to fight. A time to show love and a time to show disdain. What I most admire is the courage to use judgment in difficult situations. Not a formula. Not a lesson we’ve learned. A personal judgment based on a personal truth. This woman could have taken the easy path. She chose the complex path. She chose the right path. I’m thankful for her, and I’m thankful for all who see what is right in it.
Amen, Cindy. I like to think the world became a little bit better place because of her example.
Rick, yes. x
Sweet Rick, my dear friend, I know already that you know this–but isn’t it lovely that there is a choice that falls between submission and defiance? There is a kind of strong listening that shows concern, even as it allows power to go so instantly beyond its scope to demonstrate, without a word, the weakness present in its insistent assertion. And if the powerful use power to prevail, they must still look away from what they know is true, and they will carry that secret knowledge forward until it can no longer be denied.
Rick, I had never thought of it that way. Quiet, strong, defiant. I just love that. Thank you.
Daryl, I would love to see a day when all see the truth. (I don’t think I’m talking about my truth.) To quote Harold Brodkey from “Angels,” (Stories in an Almost Classical Mode) I think. “We all have our truths, insistently.”
Some days I despair. Not today, though. Today was a good day. Y’all made my day. Thank you.