For the past 18 years, Marina Cantacuzino has been researching forgiveness. Her study has ranged from wars and violent crimes to F everyday slights and misunderstandings, infidelities and untruths. Put baldly, what she wants to know is where and if forgiveness fits into our lives. For a word that sounds so positive, uplifting and soothing, it's actually a messy business, with so much of the philosophy and action around it in question, or under attack.
How can you forgive the murderer of your child, or the terrorist whose bomb disabled you? What if it was your father who killed your mother, or the government of your country that imprisoned you unfairly, or the doctor who failed to save your husband's life?
And if, somehow, we do forgive - or say we do - is it because we want to look away and try to forget? Is forgiving in some way condoning an act? Is talking about forgiveness a way of closing down an argument, rather than working towards a resolution? Is forgiveness a sign of a civilised society, or one that is letting its power ebb away?
Cantacuzino, who is now in her mid60s, worked as a freelance journalist, living with her artist/house-husband and three children (who are now grown) in northwest London. Her bread-and-butter work was Hello! magazine, but she also wrote for Marie Claire and occasional Guardian pieces.
Her fixation with forgiveness started with the Iraq War and her fear that the post-9/11 world was set on vengeance. "I was convinced that the harder you come down on people, the more resistant and angry they grow. So, my way of trying to bring attention to peace rather than war was to find iconic cultural stories that showed people who had experienced trauma, atrocity and violence, but who hadn't reacted with vengeful instincts. And in the course of that, I also spoke to perpetrators of violence who had transformed that aggression into a force for peace."
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 17 - 23, 2022 من New Zealand Listener.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 17 - 23, 2022 من New Zealand Listener.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A big noise
Scott Kara pays tribute to alternative rock figurehead Steve Albini.
Fiddling on the roof
After the doco recut by Peter Jackson, the original Let It Be returns as odd as ever.
Get with the pilgrim
Australian film-maker Bill Bennett thought turning his Camino de Santiago experience into a movie would be a good walk ruined. But he did it anyway.
The real queen of Bridgerton
Regency women would have a ball if they were transported from 'the Ton' to the present day, author Julia Quinn says.
Setting boundaries
A giant in the philosophy of gender seems unwilling to engage with alternative points of view or the reality of biological sex.
Affair of the heart
Miranda July's second novel, a wild ride through an unconventional relationship, is not for the faint-hearted.
A continent of no laws
A Kiwi investigative journalist has spent 21 years trying to get to the bottom of what many believe is the suspicious death of an Australian scientist in Antarctica.
I'm Jo Peck again
Four weeks after her 60th birthday, Jo Peck's husband of 25 years told her he was seeing someone else. In a new book, she details how shock and disbelief made way for happiness and contentment.
A mayor for everyone
The Far North's first Māori mayor is one of an emerging political generation bringing equity to the forefront. But a government reversal on Māori wards looms as a stumbling block.
We need to talk about dying
Whether by choice or weight of numbers, more of us will die at home in future. And with pressure to ease assisted dying restrictions, the gaps in community-based care need fixing - before time runs out.