Assignment 19: Sheridan Wagner

                There is one thing that my mom told me when I was about nine that has stuck with me my whole life. I have framed my entire personality around it. Before my mom was born my grandmother had a seven-year-old daughter named Carrie. One day she was out riding her bike and was hit by a drunk driver. They admitted her to the hospital where she was declared brain dead. My mom told me about how her mother and her father actually visited the driver of the car, who had also been admitted to the hospital due to shock, and forgave him. When I asked her why she told me that it was because hating someone requires too much energy and too much time. Hating someone is a commitment and if you truly hate someone why would you spend that much energy to simply spite them. She told me that the closest thing to love was hate and I shouldn’t waste my energy on anything less than love.

I don’t take the word “hate” gently. It’s a strong word that shouldn’t be wasted on petty disagreements. And I don’t think I have ever hated anyone. I pride myself on my ability to look past differences, to look past hate and tell myself that there are far more productive ways to spend my time. I don’t give people the privilege of being hated because if I hate them that means that on some deeper level I must care about them. In order to hate someone, you have to care enough to waste your strength on spiting them. You have to put effort into it and I was taught to never put my effort into anything less than love.