The Futility of Retaliation

We need to use extreme caution in wanting to immediately retaliate against someone whom we feel has committed a wrong against us. Although we may feel that we are punishing or hurting that person in some way through our retaliation, we must take a step back and realize that most of the time we also cause hurt to ourselves.

We must realize that retaliation does not necessarily bring about resolution, but rather, oftentimes it affords the one whom we are retaliating against the opportunity to counter attack. We must also realize that there are people in this world who do not care if they have hurt us, and so planning our attack against them for what they have done, or what we perceive they have done, can prove at best a futile effort.

Let us remember that battles have never been won by continuing to bombard the shores of the “enemy”, but at some point in a time, a ceasefire order is given, and a peace resolution agreed upon.

The Moral of the Story

At times in this life each of us will come in contact with people who will commit wrongs against us. Although the experience is painful for us, it becomes even more painful if we never let the wound heal, but allow it to continue to fester by continually bringing to the forefront the wrong committed against us.

A major part of the healing process is learning to forgive those who trespass against us. It eventually proves futile to want to belabor discussions about how or why the wrong occurred , for in the end, people grow weary of hearing our tales of woe and will become indifferent about the matter. If we continue to focus on the wrong against us, and never learn to forgive and let go, we become self incarcerated prisoners locked in a prison cell built by our own devices.