So if you’re asking me I want you to know
When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed
Don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest
– Linkin Park – Leave Out All The Rest

It’s important to us to forgive. I’ve always been VERY horrible at holding grudges. I’ll be seething about something someone did one minute and decide that it wasn’t such a big deal the next. However, there are only so many times you can forgive someone for the same thing. In my case, it’s my family. I’ve been on bad terms with them for years. I haven’t spoken to my father in over two years, to my sister in about a year, and just now started speaking again to my mom. I’d rather not get into the details just now, but, in my opinion, I have legitimate reasons to hold a grudge against them. I can’t keep forgiving the same things over and over.

So while forgiveness is perhaps one of the most important things we can ever learn, we also have to understand that we can’t forgive everyone all the time. It’s like abuse – they do it once and you let it slide. They do it a second time and you think: “He/she didn’t mean it.” When does it get to be too much?

So forgive your friends, forgive your family, forgive them for things you know are in the past. Forgive people as much as you can and love them as much as you’re capable of loving them. But don’t allow yourself to be treated like a doormat. Don’t forgive people for repeating the same mistakes over and over again, especially if they have to do with any form of abuse, and try not to repeat your own mistakes either.

Each person has a different limit as to how much they can take. Forgiveness is important, but don’t lose sight of your own physical and mental health. There has to be a last straw somewhere.

This makes me want to do something great.

Just a second ago, I watched one of the most inspirational music videos I’ve ever encountered (accompanying Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done on the list).

If Everyone Cared by Nickelback. Before I saw the video, I’ve always thought that it was about a couple, blah, blah, blah, cliché, etc.

After seeing the video, I’ve realized that it’s about so much more than that. Our world is full of crap: poverty, racism, discrimination, dictatorship, pollution, ignorance, bullying, and so much more. Can you honestly sit in your chair right now and say that you’re doing anything at all to help? Sure, routine things count, but just recycling your garbage isn’t enough (and according to Penn & Teller, absolutely pointless). I bet we recycle more for peace of mind for ourselves rather than to better our planet. We’re like Australians, who HAVE to be known as the nicest country and help because of their need to salvage some sort of praise and recognition for it.

It’s the people who go out of their way to do something great that should be acknowledged. Throwing a piece of paper in the ‘paper’ pile isn’t noteworthy. Refusing to give up your seat on a bus for a white person just because they are white is. Sure, Rosa Parks probably did not know that her simple act of defiance would change history, but that’s ok. She did what was in her power to defend her then nonexistent rights, rights that every human being, black or white or purple or straight or gay, should have.

So maybe instead of contenting ourselves with recycling plastic every once in a while, we should aim for something greater than that. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary. You don’t have to start a movement, not everyone is a leader. But come on, when you see a child being bullied by older kids, what’s stopping you from pausing your oh so busy work schedule for a few minutes and sticking up for him or her?

If you’re one of those who think that discrimination, animal abuse, and other such things are OK, if you can look at videos of animals being abused in slaughter houses and not feel a thing, you have no compassion. You may be smart. You may have read every nonfiction book out there, took every maths, science, and English class there is, but you have no heart. And no amount of studying or debate can ever change that.

As for me, I’ve had an idea as to what I can do to attempt to make the world a tiny bit better. More info on that in the future.