The Forgiving Place: Choosing Peace After Violent Trauma.

• Author: Hyatt, Ralph

THE FORGIVING PLACE: Choosing Peace After Violent Trauma BY RICHARD R. GAYTON SELFHELP BOOKS 2001,217 PAGES, $17.95

It is artful to write a book at just the right time. Publishing it electronically a second time is also to be lauded, not only as an art in its own right, but for making it available to a new, eager audience who undoubtedly has been made ready for its timeless content by their own brutal, horrendous experiences. The terror which has impacted most Americans since the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks of Sept. 11, for example, multiplies many times the need for such a publication. The author states it succinctly: "Forgiveness means freeing ourselves to stop hating. It has to do with stopping our agony. When we hate others, or ourselves, we feel the pain of hating and we hurt those we love with our unhappiness."

In 1987, Richard R. Gayton's world was ravaged by troubled violence. Two people murdered his wife during a robbery, and they remain in prison. "My hatred and wish for their deaths have been changed to concern for their well being and for the two million other Americans who live behind bars," he writes. The horrors during the destruction of the World Trade Center instilled disgust and vindictiveness in not only family and friends of the guiltless victims, but in the minds and hearts of most Americans, including myself. Some of us still harbor and are consumed by a variety of negative and destructive feelings--all of which can be categorized under the verbal umbrella of "hate."

In strongly recommending this book to such readers, my hope is to lay the groundwork for a transformation similar to that experienced by Gayton--a transition, in my opinion, which represents the highest potential of all humans. Let me assure those readers who tend to look askance at the approaches of "do-gooders" and "social workers" that I fully respect a diversity of views to most issues, and this one may certainly draw significant individual differences. Everybody has the right to think through and come to grips with each particular issue of concern.

An important consideration is that forgiving does not require a particular type of horrific event outside of...