The Impedimenta of Daily Life

There’s been a great uproar this morning.  Did you hear it?

Someone, hiding behind a mask of anonymity, posted some unwarranted and unkind words on a writing site  causing writers to stop dead in their tracks, and hurl a few unkind (though not entirely unwarranted) words back in the direction of the anonymous inkslinger.

In an effort to stop the carnage, I posted the following feedback:

His opinion isn’t worth absorbing into your being.   Let it go.

Later, as anger continued to swirl around wounded psyches, I added:

Just remember, his poison can only damage us if we absorb it.  If we let it roll off our backs . . . it will drift away into the nothingness that it is.

As the day wore on, with no sign that the writers in question (or their ardent fans) had been able or willing to let the hateful words go, I tried again:

Let’s not let the impedimenta of his hurtful words impede our progress or hold us back.  Write on!

Still nothing.

Well, not nothing . . .

One writer challenged the rather obvious redundancy of  using  both impedimenta and impede in the same sentence, but did so without commenting on the intended import behind my words.

My rationale for the intentional redundancy:

The “impedimenta” in this case will only impede our progress if we choose to ingest the anonymous inkslinger’s poisonous words. 

If we spit them out, their power immediately dissipates.   

When we refuse to let go of anger, hurt, or jealousy at the earliest possible opportunity, we are the ones impeding our own progress on the journey through life.

In contrast, as soon as we choose to let go of anger, hurt, and jealousy, the imaginary impedimenta  of hateful words in our path immediately evaporates.  As Dale Carnegie once noted:

When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.  Our hate is not hurting them at all, but our hate is turning our own days and nights into a hellish turmoil. 

Betrayal by others is a gift which allows us to grow in forgiveness.  We betray ourselves by hanging on to every slight, real and imagined.

Aah . . . that’s better!

Quote:  Failure to forgive is like swallowing poison and hoping your adversary will die.  It rarely works.

The saga continues:  A Quick Detour