Dear Stacey:

Even though he hurt you deeply, you didn’t retaliate. You could have retaliated, you knew the words to say to hurt him, but you chose not to. This is admirable, Stacey. I admire you for that. You are a good person.

The question you raised is two fold:

1. “how he could be so cruel and then be rewarded”,  why does he, with “zero ability to empathize or have compassion” suffer “no repercussions or consequents to him hurting me”?

2. And why are you suffering even though you chose to not hurt him, even though you do empathize and have compassion and conscience?

What you are bringing up is an age old dilemma. The bible brought it up repeatedly: “For I was envious of the arrogant, As I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalms), “Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are those who deal  in treachery at ease” (Jeremiah). I am not religious; my point is that this dilemma is very old.

Here is what I learned that is relevant: it is possible and it often happens that bad people (people who repeatedly and knowingly hurt others) prosper: get rich and famous, have power over many people, etc., but happy people don’t do bad acts. And people who do bad acts are not happy.

I will be away from the computer for the next 12 hours or so. I will probably return to your thread to write more about what I started to express here. If you reply to what I wrote so far, I will read before I post to you again.

anita

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