fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, March 29, 2012, First period]

Anakin was having a really tough week and it was evident in his choice of discussion topic today, if not his expression. "We all struggle with the wrongs others have done to us as well as those we have done to others," he began, "and it's widely considered unhealthy to hold onto such toxic anger or seek revenge when we're the wronged party."

He started pacing. "Many--especially those who consider themselves religious--believe the answer lies in forgiveness. But we can get bogged down in the hows and whens and whys of the thing: do you ask for forgiveness immediately, and in doing so, does it rob the other person of their righteous anger? Are there things that cannot be forgiven? What about things that happened generations ago: it that telling children about their heritage or just adding to an unhelpful cycle of resentment and revenge?" He sighed. "The topic is much more complicated than the 'tell them you're sorry' I teach my toddler. My questions today are: do you confess to it immediately when you do something wrong and do you think there are things that are just unforgiveable?"

Like, say, torturing your children, blowing up a planet and enslaving a galaxy for decades? Something like that.

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Vengefully!

Ah, forgiveness. Not really Anakin's forte.

Edited 2012-03-29 13:59 (UTC)

"Do you confess immediately when you do something wrong and do you think there are things that are just unforgivable?"

Who are there!

Two children have been up for two hours.

And have been crying for...pretty much two hours. Pass the coffee, folks.

Gabrielle

Gabrielle might've been sneaking an occasional concerned look Anakin's way; she got the sense the discussion topic had some personal relevance, and it was one she was pretty familiar with herself, so. Concern-face.

Billy Kaplan

Gabrielle had been listening intently to begin with, but as soon as she caught onto the undercurrent of what Anakin was saying she leaned forward a little, her expression serious as she chewed on her thumbnail and considered the questions.

"I...have to admit that I usually confess immediately when I do something wrong, because I'm not a great liar and I feel guilty really easily and really quickly," Billy said. "I think some things are unforgivable, but I'm talking acts-of-terrorism level things committed by someone who never changes for the better. It...it really depends."

"I haven't in the past," Gabrielle answered frankly. "It's easy enough to say that a lot of things could have been avoided if only everyone had been honest from the start, but who's to say that honesty wouldn't cause its own problems at the time? Sometimes the situation just isn't right for that. Sometimes there will be damage one way or the other, and it's just a matter of trying to control when it happens."

She sounded as if she were a little sorry to have to concede that as truth.

"As for the unforgivable . . ." She thought of Xena, as an archangel, sacrificing her light to redeem Callisto, and of how letting go of her own hatred of Callisto had been her own trial to become an archangel. And she smiled. "Personally, I believe that everything is forgivable, but it . . . takes superhuman effort sometimes. And occasionally it's -- it's a process. A long one. It may take years or a lifetime -- maybe lifetimes -- to complete."

Kate Daniels

Sam Puckett

Ryan Clark

Simon Bellamy

Stacey McGill

"I don't always confess right away," Stacey said thoughtfully. "Sometimes I don't say anything if I think it's just going to be more trouble. But if things come out, everything tends to work out in the end."

~~That happened when you had 120 pages to wrap up a plot.~~

Elle Bishop

"And if a terrorist came forward and said how sorry he was, would it really make things better for you?" Anakin asked.

Anakin looked--just for a moment--enormously relieved by her second reply. "Sometimes it can be in the best interest of the person not to tell them the truth," he agreed.

"Are there things you wouldn't be able to forgive someone for doing to you?" Anakin asked.

Stacey thought about it.

"I'd rather no one stole a guy I really liked."

Stacey was a damn hypocrite.

And with all of the terrible backgrounds many of his students had, Anakin found himself trying to suppress a grin at something so...very normal and high school.

"And if it happened?"

"Oh, there'd be a fight," she said very seriously.

And unlike oh, say, Claudia, she'd win.

"That doesn't sound that forgiving," Anakin noted.

Dave Nelson

"Everything I've ever come across is forgivable. It might take a very big apology, but I've yet to come across something I can't forgive," Dave said, touting his Midwestern values.

"Which isn't to say that I immediately confess. But I trust whoever I wronged will forgive that, too."

"Well, no," Billy said sheepishly. "Maybe a better person would forgive, but not me."

Alex Aaron

Ethics [Thursday, March 29, 2012, First period]

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