3. Is the world a forgiving place? Does one mistake wreck everything, or do we get many chances?

The discussion of this question went on longer than probably any of the others, but I never did get the group talking about what I had intended to ask. We talked a lot about what forgiveness is, and about forgiving other people. We had some discussion of large-scale malefactors like Hitler, and whether they could be forgiven. We talked a little about forgiving ourselves for what we have done wrong in the past.

The situation I intended to ask about is: We are making decisions at every moment. Sometimes we make them badly or based on wrong information. Any time we make a choice, we run the risk that the future will prove us wrong. How do we anticipate being judged for the mistakes we might be making right now?

For some people, the prospect of future condemnation is so horrible that they are incapacitated in the present; they can't make any decisions at all. Others are so happy-go-lucky that they make easily avoidable mistakes out of carelessness. Where do we see ourselves in this spectrum? Do we believe that if we screw up, it will eventually be OK? That we'll be able to forgive ourselves? That people will understand? That the situation will be fixable somehow--or at least salvagable? Or do we feel that we'll never hear the end of our mistakes?

An interesting tangent to go off on: In some households old disputes never die; every argument eventually makes its way back to events that happened decades before. In other households, this style of arguing is unknown. How would you characterize the household you live in now? What about the household you grew up in? How does this affect your attitude towards mistakes and forgiveness?