The Art of Forgiving

But, you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's getting late. -- Bob Dylan

American folksingers Pete Seeger and Burl Ives reunite in 1993.

If there is one thing that I have tried to take with me from my early years of Catholicism,* it’s the virtue of forgiveness. A simple act that can be so difficult yet so rewarding. The gateway to Heaven.

Catholics go to confession to ask forgiveness for their sins. Again and again.

Jesus’ words dying on the cross: Forgive them Father for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)

Forgiveness is liberation. Overcoming a grudge releases us. Letting go of hard feelings takes courage. It is a step toward a higher principle, a spiritual understanding and guide for life.

Forgiving is not forgetting. Sometimes you forgive, then you forgive again... letting go becomes a process.

A memory that sticks in my mind were the words of American folksinger Pete Seeger upon the death of his contemporary Burl Ives.

Ives was popular on radio and TV during the 50s and 60s. He had a grandfatherly beard and a mellifluous tenor voice. A onetime hobo, Ives began his career as a left-leaning folksinger.

His song, There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, became a favorite of many in the 50s when I was growing up, a fun sing-along that evoked smiles and good feelings with its rhyming, tongue-twisting verses, each ending with, I don’t know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die. It was as harmless as a playful puppy, a sign of those days that avoided controversy.

While Ives enjoyed the spoils of popularity, Seeger was exiled for his socialist-communist associations.

Seeger sang for and about oppressed people, those who suffered from having their rights taken from them. He told the story of Victor Jara, a Chilean folksinger-guitar player whose hands were cut off and ultimately died from torture, a victim of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile.

During the early 50s, following the War, an anti-communist movement swept the United States, led by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. The House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) held hearings. Many media figures -- actors, filmmakers, screen writers were named as communists or communist sympathizers. Pete Seeger was blacklisted.

Having had American communist associations, Ives volunteered to testify before the HUAC. His willingness to talk and name names saved his career, which flourished. He became well loved and revealed a talent for dramatic acting, winning an Oscar for best male actor in a supporting role in the film, Big Country (1959). A year earlier he had personified Big Daddy, the impassioned patriarch, in a supporting role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, based on the play by Tennessee Williams, and featuring superstars Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor.

Seeger resented Ives for his HUAC testimony. Seeger was banned on American television until 1960. That’s when I first heard of him. His story, I believed, made him an authentic folksinger representing what was known as the common folk, or working class.

On April 14, 1995 Burl Ives passed away. He was memorialized by many Americans as a beloved folksinger-actor. I happened to be listening to NPR that day. Seeger was being interviewed. He spoke kindly about Ives. The interviewer asked Seeger if he carried hard feelings about Ives because of his testimony.

"No," he said. "There's such a thing as forgiveness." His words rang loud in my mind, resurrecting a a virtue we too often do not hear of.  

Two years earlier, he and Ives, then in a wheel chair, had reunited for the first time since the HUAC ban at a benefit concert in New York City where they sang Blue Tail Fly together, according to legend, a favorite song of Abraham Lincoln. 

Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care, old master’s gone away...

My holiday resolution is to forgive someone very close to me. That someone is me. Maybe then I can forgive another for whom I have held a long grudge. It starts with yours truly.

As more of a Zen practitioner today than a Christian, I see forgiveness as ridding myself of attachment to the past, aligning myself with the present, being momentous, in the flow not fighting it. 

I accept wrongs as a part of life. We all make mistakes, do stupid things. However, as the man said, "There's such a thing as forgiveness." 

Tis the season. A time to forgive. The gift of giving.

Zen saying: You've eaten, now wash your bowl.

* Posts: Inside the Church 10/6/24; Adjusting My Religion 5/18/24