Keep An Eraser Handy

(A response to Yana Bostongirl’s prompt: ‘What am I letting go off in 2021’)

This is going to be my ‘good resolution’, not only for the new year: but for every new day: I am going to keep an eraser handy.

I have a long memory for the wrong things.

I remember all the clutter that I have accumulated in my mind, of all the hurtful things people have done to me, said to, and about me, thought of me. All those things that I have packed into separate, non bio degradable bags and packed away into secure compartments in my brain and heart? I shall take them out, item, by item, bag by bag. Look at them. Try and remember how long ago I had stored them away. They seem silly now, and I, so petty and insecure for having stored them there. And you know those great statements that I sometimes make? “I shall never forget or forgive you!” “I shall forgive/ forget, but never forget/ forgive you!”

So, in my mind, I set up a court.

Do you remember those great statements you have made, I ask myself, in this court I have set up, to try these ‘crimes’. A court where I am judge and jury and witness.

Who do you think you are, I ask myself, dispassionately, God Almighty?

How many times, in how many ways, at how many stages in your life, have genuinely good and compassionate people forgiven you, for the major lapses in your own behaviour? And by comparison, how mean, petty and small do you show yourselves to be when you insist on carting around the baggage of other people’s supposed deceits?

Take an eraser, then.

Wipe the slate clean.

Start again.

The erasure is not for the people you forgive or the wrongs you forget. It is for your own positive and healthy well being. Be good to yourself, for yourself. Surround yourself with positive vibes, after removing the negative ones.

It is very, very difficult, but not impossible to do. And you are doing it, not only for yourself. You are also doing it for your children and siblings. Don’t let your toxic example poison your children’s minds and lives. Remember that when you teach your children to hate, very soon, the hate will be directed against you. Make no mistake about that. Hate ALWAYS destroys its creator. I have lived long enough to see that happening in real life to real people I know.

Please don’t create a Frankenstein monster. They are remarkably difficult to destroy.

Use an eraser. Destroy hate. Create love and compassion. You owe it to yourself.

Case closed.

For now.

©️ 2021 Suma Narayan. All Rights Reserved.

Thank you for this very relevant prompt, Yana Bostongirl.

Shoutout to Thief for this thought-provoking, intelligent, sensitive and compassionate effusion: