LETTING GO OF GRUDGES

Jun 18, 2019 Editorial

Unless Guyanese do, they are lost. Unless citizens let go of racial and political grudges, then any visions and efforts towards environmental and national mending and rising are doomed to the garbage heap of failure.
It is a high heap that is killing slowly. Very few are immune to what traps in a terrible spiral. Whatever the CCJ announces today will not reverse.
For a great majority of locals, casting off the political grudges that robs this nation is not an option. It is unthinkable in the extreme. Why should we? To shorten aspirations? To limit promise and participation? What about them?
Half a fig is better than no fig. But there is neither listening nor understanding nor readiness towards letting go, of starting over clean. CCJ cannot live this; has to be by Guyanese.
The advice from a New York Times article dated May 19, and titled, “Let Go of Your Grudges. They’re Doing You No Good. What does holding on to grudges really get us?” applies to all Guyanese. Try telling that to local citizens. No listening. No interest. Not here, where “Nothing is too small or petty, when it comes to grudges.” Not with individuals; not with any of the two major groups; not on a national level. Not with regard for the future. CCJ could point, citizens have to act.
A more than decade-old study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology as part of the Stanford Forgiveness Project notes that “skills-based forgiveness training may prove effective in reducing anger…stress…and physical health symptoms” as well as the related “stress we put on our immune and cardiovascular systems.”
And further “that carrying anger into old age is associated with higher levels of inflammation and chronic illness.” The price is high; simply look where this nation has been mired forever, where it could have risen, if only it gives itself a chance. No CCJ counseling needed.
But no! There are a lot of angry middle-aged and older people in this country, who walk around with the baggage of racial grudges that cripple at every level. This country is not progressing; for that is what is passed on to children who, in turn, carry that angry torch that inflames this angry society, and make it hateful.
The study reveals that “If it’s bitterness” it is held “with anger.” And “if it’s hopeless” there is “despair.” That is what powers (bitterness and anger) and paralyzes (hopelessness and despair). Who is going to win? That means somebody loses. That means many are out. That means more anger, more outflow, more despair in an unending and vicious circle.
How to confront? How to reverse? “Full forgiveness can…reverse the negative repercussions of holding on to anger and grudges.” In Guyana, that is best embodied by racial angers and racial grudges. Moreover, that word-forgiveness-is a dirty one in this country. Not to be mentioned, but abhorred here. Like incest. Like perceived dirty diseases. Like feared spirits of the netherworld.
For those who seek a better Guyana, forgiveness involves a multi-step process: forgiveness starts with freeing self; then others; it starts now. Not the CCJ’s role; true freedom must originate from Guyanese.
The freedom to reconcile, a soothing hand. All Guyanese are in desperate need of such reconciling hands. In the heart, there must be readiness to adjust thinking on the sources of group grudges: History. Memory. Legacy. Those are the universes of individual stories of mindless, baseless anger for others, which form the great Guyanese collective that cripples this nation, and causes it to cower through decimation of its spirit, its potential, its present and future.
Many of the younger ones (older ones, too) harbor anger and hate for which they can identify neither root nor cause. Except that it is “them.” Therefore, it is justified; it is right. It must stay that way. Except that it can’t. Regardless of how the CCJ rules.