day 272 - the EOQ is nigh

 Today is the 6th day of the 39th week, the 29th day of the 9th month, the last business day of the 3rd quarter, the 272nd day of 2023, and:

• Ask a Stupid Question Day - always on the last school day of September.  There are two stock comments that are most often made - "there are no stupid questions", and then the snarky "get a stupid answer"
• Broadway Musicals Day
• Confucius' Birthday - sometimes different sites have different dates for the same holiday as it actually falls on the 27th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar
• German Butterbrot Day
• Goose Day 
• Hug a Vegetarian [or Vegan] Day
• International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
• International Happy Goose Day
• Michaelmas - one of the quarter days and celebrating the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.  Just know that if you encounter an angel, don't blink
• Mutation Day - courtesy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
• National Attend Your Grandchild's Birthday Day
• National Biscotti Day
• National Brave Day
• National Carson Day - because apparently there are a lot of people named Carson?
• National Coffee Day
• National Mocha Day
• National Police Remembrance Day
• National Starbucks Day
• Pitru Paksha - when Hindi pray for the souls of their ancestors
• Save the Koala Day
• Silent Movie Night 
• Sport Purple for Platelets Day
• Sukkot - the first day of a week long Jewish celebration also known as "the Feast of Booths"
• Urban National Wildlife Refuge Day
• Vegan Baking Day
• VFW Day
• World Heart Day
• World's Biggest Coffee Morning
• the Harvest moon is full at 5:58 AM EDT
• and Voyager 1 is 22h 23m 00s of light travel time from Earth

Quote of the day:

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude."

~ Martin Luther King JR, Draft of “Love in Action”

Is it possible to live in a state of forgiveness?   To choose over and over again to put your hurt aside, to choose not to be angry or upset or bitter or resentful?  To choose not to retaliate or escalate a negative [from your point of view] situation?  Are there truly different levels to our forgiveness, our acceptance of what is?  

And how do you forgive yourself, not just for what you have done but for what you failed to do, for not comprehending or understanding.  

So, if you refuse to forget, have you really forgiven?  

There are many opinions that you can find online  [I'm old enough to remember when Google would tell you approximately how many results your query generated, but I don't remember when they stopped doing that] and I read a few but I am not going to link to any of them because I think that is an intensely personal issue for each of us.  

For example:  I often have told the story about how I came to go to a local, commuter college [and I had to work every day while doing so] after high school when I had a full four-year scholarship [tuition, room and board] at a prestigious, out-of-state university.  My mother decided she would not sign a statement that she could not afford to send me to college, stating that if my academic achievement truly warranted a scholarship, her financial situation should not matter.   I have often thought about how different my life could've been, and how unreasonable her stance was.   I tell myself I have forgiven her, but 55 years later, I clearly have not forgotten [although I honestly don't remember the name of the university anymore], nor have I accepted, or even comprehended, how she felt.  

The incident itself does not haunt me, and hasn't for years, but I clearly haven't forgotten it.  So, have I let go?  I don't know