There once was a boy who used to love home cooking. But one day he decided to try some other food, and discovered he thoroughly enjoyed all the other flavors much more. His family recipes were stale, bland, and boring by comparison.
His family forbade him from eating these spicy foods, for they were taboo in his culture. They protested and insisted he stop eating these foods, but the boy saw no harm in them and a long, protracted argument ensued. Frustrated with the ultimatum, the boy eventually threw the family cookbook away.
His wealthy family could not entice him back, so instead they secretly paid a woman to cook for him. He was completely clueless. The family knew he had a taste for spicy food, and she happened to be an excellent chef, combining both sweet and spicy together. She even had a YouTube cooking channel that he wasn't aware of for the longest time.
The family thought that, once his stomach had had enough spice, he would want no more and would start eating from the family cookbook again. Together with the woman, they devised a plan so that he would hate spicy food and develop an allergy to it.
At the same time, the woman became concerned for what might happen to her in the fallout. People gathered around and whispered many things in her ears, telling her that the boy had breathed too much fiery breath upon her. They told her they had intercepted illegal pepper seeds mailed to him, and wanted to know if this was intentional or by mistake. (He didn't even know this and only learned of this much, much later. The court proceedings and ripples through the community ruined him.)
Influenced and persuaded by all the whispers, the woman demanded additional monies from his family, else she share everything on Facebook. They obliged and paid her.
As part of the plan, the the family asked the woman, an amazing actress, to trick the boy into eating food too spicy for him so that his stomach would ache so much he would stop eating spicy food. The family asked the woman to provoke the boy into breathing fire upon her so that he could be accused of eating food too spicy. It was all a lie, just like the relationship he thought they had had. He saw the traps and side-stepped them as best he could. He swallowed his own fire and burned his insides instead.
He still loved her and thought she loved him too, but saw now that he had been played the whole time. Not just by her, but by his family too. He had been betrayed by the people he loved and trusted most.
He knew this a long, long time. He kept this knowledge and the deep pain to himself. They did not know that he knew this. He examined the information from many perspectives and in many lights to get a better understanding of all the whys.
People do what they need to do. They are motivated by a number of factors. It is one thing to hold people accountable, to protect others, and to correct behavior. Everyone needs this; everyone. But it is another thing altogether to judge or to punish out of anger or vengeance. These things are expected because they are common, yet they are wrong.
No, forgiveness was easy. He didn't forgive out of the weakness of a broken heart or romantic love, though those feelings were certainly there. He forgave because he could see the situation more or less clearly, which is to say from multiple perspectives. And yes, he did still love her, whether her love was all an act the whole time or not.
Many people ridiculed the woman for her YouTube channel. He didn't. He saw a little bit of it and actually enjoyed it. Didn't change his opinion of her either way. (Actually, he was happy for her.) He felt bad that some internet trolls would leave nasty comments to taunt and try to shame her for putting herself out there for others. He also felt bad for the internet trolls who were so full of hate and couldn't appreciate what she and people like her had to offer. He didn't understand why, if you don't like what you're watching, you don't simply stop watching. It was so strange to him that some people felt they had to harm someone who not only wasn't harming anyone else, but was giving generously. He really could not understand.
And after all that effort and all that pain, he still liked spicy food and had even more reason than before not to use the family cookbook anymore.
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