There’s a fine line between justice and revenge and while justice may bring a logical resolution, revenge just lengthens and intensifies the dispute. Yes I’m a pacifist, always have been and I prefer to maturely walk away from an argument than engage in it but in terms of justice versus revenge, I think the waters can sometimes get a little muddied. Each person must therefore carefully examine the motives for their actions to determine whether they’re actually trying to resolve the issue with justice or simply seeking personal revenge which will ultimately resolve nothing.

Justice doesn’t always mean the other person has to “pay” for what they did of course. Justice can just mean the practicality of the situation ceases. i.e. the neighbourhood dispute no longer includes throwing dead chickens over the fence or whatever it may be. The problem with justice is that it doesn’t always take into account the emotional damage caused by the events and that’s where a wish for revenge can creep into the mix. What we do and what we feel about what we do may be two different things.

I would suggest that we all have a responsibility to ask ourselves if our actions are motivated by justice and a mature desire to resolve the situation and/or revenge and a need to address the hurt. Exploring and resolving the hurt are vital to ultimate resolution of any issue but that can be done without malicious revenge. There can be better ways to end a fight than to “win”.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst