I will below copy, with some light editing, out a short video snippet from Logos University, presenting Jordan Peterson; it was seen by me online on 12/7/24, and here it is: “I watched people who were enmired in bitterness say they are no longer enmired in bitterness. I remember the Nietzschean dictum which goes something like this: ‘You may think you are done with the past, but that doesn’t mean the past is done with you.”
And if you have gone down a dark road and remained there for a long time, there are traces of that that last a long time. And they will come and get you if you think you have escaped them. But your response that you are grateful—that’s a good response. Gratitude is the opposite of bitterness.”
I sometimes am amazed at how wise and apt Jordan’s words are, and, sometimes, he is way off base, but this time his take is poignant. When one long immersed oneself in wicked ways, though one repents, atones and adopts the life of love, virtue, holiness and communion with a a good deity, the old ways can sneak up and recapture one, causing one to backslide into complete darkness and nastiness.
Evil people are bitter, and bitterness transmutes into hatred for the self, for others, towards the Good Spirits, towards Being itself.
Good people can be depressed, bitter and resentful to suffering and misfortune, but they do not allow these negative emotions to get a grip on their minds and outlooks for very long.
They love God, themselves, and the world itself, and are profoundly grateful for life itself, with all its problems, and ups and downs.
Being grateful, they are loving, and that transmutes all hurt into wisdom gained in the school of hard knocks.
As a former major league sinner, being grateful goes a long way to keeping the self-good and optimistic, and this is what the wise Peterson is advising.
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