If I had to come up with a single main theme of my novel, In the Midst of Death . . ., it would be a piece out of my personal credo:

Develop a sense of selective amnesia. Never forget the mistakes of the past because you don’t want to repeat them, but do let go of the pain that was caused by those mistakes. Nothing good has ever come from nursing a grudge, and vengeance only brings new wrongs to be avenged.

What I’m talking about, of course, is forgiveness, or at least moving past the wrong that’s been done to you. My book includes characters who can’t do that, and so end up harming themselves and their loved ones as well their enemies.

One of my favorite characters is Constable Dickens, a dry, passionless man who comes closest to my old hero, Mr. Spock. He lays it out in the following scene:

Dickens said, “I don’t think it would have mattered much, even if my uncle had been a whiner. I never saw the point in hanging on to old grudges. Just weigh you down.”

“So I should just forgive Simian for a week of hell?” Aaron asked.

Rev. Wilson said “Yes” and Dickens said “No” simultaneously.

“My ‘yea’ shoots down your ‘nay’,” said Wilson. “I’ve got the bigger gun.”

Dickens shook his head. “I’m not talking about taking score with the Big Man. I’m talking about what’s practical. Forgetting’s more important than forgiving. You can forgive all you want, but if you keep on remembering what’s been done, reliving it day after day, then every day you have to forgive all over again, and that requires the kind of sainthood most people lack. Whatever’s been done, just get over it and move on.”