self-help

there are travel guides. and books on etiquette. citation style guides. i was going to write a story about someone who can't escape everyone else's obsession with a self-help book. all his/her friends are chipper and hopped up on this guide to self-love and success. something about rejecting help. or being haunted by unwanted advice. or maybe it was about rejecting commodified happiness.

but lately i've been thinking about forgiveness and how there really are no rules or guides. just people who urge you in one direction or the other. those who think you need to forgive any and every fumble and flaw, and those who, once wronged, cut ties without batting a lash. but it's a trickier business than that isn't it? who deserves forgiving and what deserves forgetting?

so. if i wrote a guide to forgiveness, what would it say? forgive early. forgive often. forget rarely.