The Kite Runner

I just finished reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. Painful. I think that's the only way to describe it. I don't understand how people can hate so much. What a waste. I can't, or maybe don't want to, understand why people would waste their whole lives and their country trying to kill someone just because they are of a particular race or religion. The book is about more than that, it's about honor, forgiveness, weakness, shame, fear, redemption. Amazing book but painful. Just thinking about it makes my chest heavy and my throat tight. There was one quote that really struck me, "...that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night." (p. 359) I think that's the truest statement on forgiveness I've ever heard. Whether trying to forgive myself or someone else, I have found that after I've done all I can do to redeem the situation I just have to wait. Wait for the ache to subside and for pain to slip away in an unnoticed moment.