Reconciliation: Will I Know It When I See It? | Sojourners

Reconciliation: Will I Know It When I See It?

Tiger & Elin. Jon & Kate. Deadly Viper and some angry Asian Americans.

What does reconciliation look like? What's the difference between "moving on" in a healthy way and exercising the privilege to walk away from difficult conversations?

All the buzz about Tiger's return to golf and Kate's debut on the dance floor caught my attention not because I care about golf or hair extensions but because their choice to "move on" from their respective scandals has got me thinking about forgiveness and reconciliation. Yes, their lives were a circus before the scandals, a teeny bit different than mine. Peter is not a pro golfer, and I am not a model. Peter does not own anything Ed Hardy, and I don't get followed by the paparazzi. They are celebrities, but they and we are human beings. Why wouldn't they want to move on, heal, and, perhaps, forget? I would.

But is that reconciliation? Would it be enough to see Elin stand by her man at the Masters? (IMHO, no. It would not.) If not, what is enough? Can someone ever apologize enough? Ask for forgiveness enough? Be forgiven enough? And then is that reconciliation?

So the saga known as Deadly Viper isn't exactly like Tiger and Elin and Jon and Kate, but when I think about forgiveness and reconciliation I can't help but think about DV. There was a lot of ugliness and some hope. There were hurt feelings and misunderstandings. There were conversations and side conversations about actions versus intent versus past deeds done. There were divisions, sides taken, and allegiances. And it was in real time, online and public in a "you can't take that back ever" sort of way. Relationships that started out broken between real people fractured in such a way that made me (and I speak for myself and no one else involved in the DV saga) wonder if we achieved the right end. I'm still wondering