Island Soul City Dreams

Revenge Is Never The Solution

Photo Credit: Google Images/Marie-Elise.com

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

On Tuesday afternoon, someone I’ve grown to love and admire, someone who over the past five years has become a very dear friend, did something to hurt me to the core. This someone actually happens to be a national icon in their professional field. I thought their actions were erratic, immature, unwarranted, utterly disrespectful and downright nasty. Like a woman scorned, I seriously considered doing something to cause this person major damage. It was the type of damage that could destroy their career, marriage and impeccable public image.

I sat down later in the evening, and for seven hours, I wrote a lengthy blog post – a tell-it-all of sorts, with the intention of publishing part one of three today.  It was filled with a potpourri of emotions, punctuated with effective use of almost every literary device, it came alive with the most active verbs, was colored with the boldest of adjectives, and I capitalized on all the best writing tips my former editors and journalism professors at Columbia University gave me. If you’ve read my writing, you know I delight in finding a way to take readers on the journey with me, and that I did.

I then I edited some incriminating photos to accompany the post, created the most SEO friendly headline imaginable and carefully re-read all three 3,000 plus words. It’s the stuff the TV series “Scandal” is made of, and I swear, it’s my finest piece of writing ever. It could generate record traffic to my blog. It could lead to me finally publishing that book about which I’ve long been dreaming. It’s destined to create even bigger headlines than the one it boasts. Alas, NO one will ever get to read it.

As I sat there in front of my iMac with my hand on the mouse about to click “Publish”, I knew it really wasn’t me to seek revenge, to do something so vindictive; even as much as that person probably deserved it. I thought of how I continuously strive “to be good and do good” and how so much good has followed me even amidst the hurdles. I thought about how what that person did was more a reflection of them than of me. I thought of how forgiving I’ve always been, even when people have done me the worst things.

Then I thought, “Am I glorifying God in using the talent He has given me to cause someone’s downfall”? Tears came to my eyes as I acknowledged it was NOT the Christian thing to do. I could not bring myself to press “Publish”. In that same moment, just before 3 a.m., a notification alert sounded on my iPad and there was an email from the person who had hurt me; an email seeking conflict resolution.

Lesson I learned here: As challenging as it can be, don’t react in anger; don’t let someone’s hurtful actions compel me to do anything that compromises my integrity, my joy, my faith, the beautiful soul God has created me to be.

Have peaceful day y’all.

~ I Keep it Irie ~

Peace not war.