"Haunted by the lives that I have loved and actions I have hated..."

Monday, cigarette #2
The Owl Shop, 2:15pm
MUSIC: "Amazed," Poe

The voice of my father still loud as before; it used to scare me, but not anymore . . .

Roger Scruton's meditation on forgiveness got linked on the A & L Daily, but after reading it I wished I'd spent twenty minutes on "the glorious toothpick" instead:

Forgiveness is not achieved unilaterally: it is the result of a dialogue, which may be tacit, but which involves reciprocal communication of an extended and delicate kind. . . The one who forgives changes his whole posture towards the one who had injured him, and cannot do this without the other’s cooperation.

This isn't just a bad idea; it's dangerously bad. If Scruton is right, then we live in a world where we can't forgive people who are dead. Or people who don't understand what they've done. Or people who understand what they've done but are going to keep on doing it anyway. Think about it: if you're going to help an alcoholic friend quit the bottle, is forgiving him something you do before or after?

I'm not sure that electro-pop concept albums are Roger Scruton's cup of tea, but Haunted is the album that Ann Danielewski (sister of the House of Leaves guy) made about her father after he died. It's brutal stuff ("If you want to play dirty, my darling, I'm gonna win; I'm not a virgin anymore"), but it makes a pretty compelling case for having an understanding of forgiveness that lets you forgive someone after they're gone.