Remembering to Forget

Author Richard Mouw tells of a black theologian from South Africa who struggled with dark memories of life under apartheid. Mouw wrote, “He told a story about an African child whose teacher asked her to define ‘memory.’ After thinking about it, the child said, ‘Memory is that thing that helps me to forget.’” Out of the mouths of babes! Her past held much she didn’t want to recall, so she wanted to remember the good things.Many carry the scars of terrible