The secret of a lasting relationship is forgiveness. People are going to hurt you, they can be total jerks, and they will betray you in one form or another. It is an inevitable reality that we are all imperfect beings who are destined to stab each other in the heart every once and again. The only way for a relationship of any form, be it friendship, familial, lovers, co-workers, marriages, to have sustainability is the ability to truly forgive.

Forgiveness is hard because when you know someone for a long time you often build up resentment like plaque, but we don’t have Listerine for emotional bonds. So when you have a problem with someone, it is never just about that one moment, but all the times they have sucked in the past as well. It is like a cyclone of everything they have ever done to make you want to pluck out their pubic hair and glue onto their face as a mustache.

To truly forgive someone is to force your self to focus on the situation at hand, let whatever happened go, contextualize what that person must have been going through to act they way they did, and extend compassion. You have to be empathetic to their disposition despite the fact that you may fantasize about farting on their toothbrush, and remember the many other times they had been great friend to you.

Being a parent is a daily test in forgiveness and is helping me to understand the art form of it all. The Munch is a total dick-face multiple times a day, but within seconds she is hugging and kissing me like nothing ever happened. The only way to survive her emotional terrorism is to live in a perpetual state of forgiveness.

Pretty easy to forgive that face!