It takes an awful lot of energy to sustain negative feelings (hate, resentment, lust for revenge) over the years. It’s much healthier to let it go and move on. But at the same time I don’t understand why people who have clearly suffered due to another person’s cruel or sadistic behavior need to forgive the perpetrator in order to flush it all out. Why does it have to be an either/or (i.e., keep the hate going or forgive the tormentor/torturer?). What about a middle road in which the former victim says, “The guy who made my life hell when I was younger was a vile, vicious fuck at the time. He might feel badly about this now due to maturity and mellowing and that’s fine, but there’s no way I’m giving him a ‘go with God’ card. Which isn’t to say I don’t believe in a ‘be here now’ lifestyle. I’m living in the present and the past is the past, but the guy who tortured me is going to have to deal with his karma on his own dime. He’ll get no backrubs from me. And if he dies of ass cancer sometime soon? C’est la vie.”