I was about to write an old friend, who now sees me as a leftist enemy, that I forgive him, But I knew it would only ignite him even further – I knew it would make him think I’m playing holier-than-thou and he’d hate me even more.  This is all because I invited my long-time friend, Alicia Ostriker, to speak with me about her long career in poetry.  

If I forgive him for repeatedly trying to make me look and feel like a traitor, who would I not forgive?  

And that leads me to the question of what forgiveness is.  I have so many enemies – some who would be happy to kill me, some who I have wronged, some who are simply resentful that I exist.  If I did not forgive the soldiers who smashed my cousins against the wall of their house, if I did not forgive the Nazis who made my mother’s life so dangerous she aborted two children with her own hands, if I did not forgive the guy who blew up my friend in the middle of the street – how could I live?  What kind of life would I have?