The Dead End

        Has there ever been a time when you have just wanted to hurt someone?  Not just hurt them because you want to, but because you felt as if they did something wrong against you.  Or, they actually harmed you, not just doing something wrong.  This feeling is most commonly referred to as revenge.  Read the small quote below by Douglas Horton.

Now, think about this for a second.  Dig a second grave?  You might at first be confused, as how would killing or hurting one person come back on you?  Actually, it is very clear and simple.  There has never been a story of revenge that has ever come to make the revengee happy or feel better.  It only makes them feel worse in the long run, even if it does feel good for a second.  All you will do in the end is drag yourself down with the other you are trying to pull down.

This can be seen in Shakespeare's famous work of Hamlet.  Hamlet's father, also named Hamlet, orders Hamlet to take revenge on the man who killed him, which is Hamlet's uncle.  The whole play is based upon this, and Hamlet gets his revenge in the end, killing his uncle to set thing's right.  But, in this heroic tragedy, Hamlet also dies from the poisoned point of a rapier that he had been stabbed with during his sword duel with Laertes.  He literally became the second grave.

Revenge only steeps you down to a lower level than where you actually belong.  Someone who forgives is usually a happier person than the one that seeks revenge and drives himself or herself mad in the process.