Don't inflict your history upon someone else

I read Jodi Picoult's 'The Storyteller' this past weekend and it turned out to be one of those haunting reads.Brilliant,no doubt, but haunting in that the characters stay with you long after you've closed the book. It largely centers around the Holocaust ,so it was with a sense of disillusionment that I realised just how horrifically history is repeating itself. Except now ,the Jews are the Nazi's.

What Hitler and his army did was vile,repulsive and downright atrocious. And that's exactly the direction the zionists in Palestine are headed. I struggled to grasp how a nation who was once oppressed ,now effortlessly inflicts similar torture upon another nation. But then I reminded myself that this is so commonplace amongst individuals as well. The man who cursed his drunkard father ,could scarcely remain sober later on in his life. The girl who was repeatedly beaten up by her parents ,turned on her own children eventually. The kid who couldn't hold his own against the bullies in the playground ,abused his subordinates in the workplace. See where I'm going with this? It sometimes happens that we become the very thing we had previously put up a resistance against. In some people the effect of habit could be marginal, but in others it could determine their entire character or behaviour.

I personally don't think that ones behaviour can be excused based on exposure to the same in the past. We have intellect and reason and we should employ these to make sound decisions and choices. The past and what we have been through ,if negative, should serve to motivate us to improve ourselves and try to steer away from that negativity. It is so disheartening knowing we can inflict the same damage upon others ,knowing full well what that torment and suffering feels like.

We are not animals.As laughable as that reminder may seem it is precisely what some people need to hear. If you have been abused,mistreated,teased and ridiculed make sure you protect others from the same. Evil is not inherited, it is something that takes choices to get to. May the Almighty guide us to choose the correct path every time,and if we slip may He return us to His path!Aameen

Until you read again
Ma'assalaam