The need to be forgiven for hurts we inflict upon Sisters and Brother in Love is so great that all communication lines should be promptly cleared for transmission of this cry for help.

And, because it's so precious, it's essential that genuine contriteness not be confused with a gambit which gamesters dangle before the innocent and generous in feeling. Yes. Gamesters such as Flim-Flam, the first Flim Flam Man in Prehistory.

"Forgive! Forgive! Forgive!" is a hoke that Flim-Flam loved to sing. Especially in the ear of his little sister, Snusie the Sniveler.

Flim-Flam jauntily returns home from a day of flim-flamming his flammish kin. Thinking of little sister Snusie from afar, he gloats over a hoke he perpetrated upon her sniveling soul this morning. Now, espying her stirring a tasty pot of porridge, Flim-Flam quickly squirts some adrenalin into his pipes and flushes out his brain for instant imposture. He crosses his eyes until his ears whistle, scanning his brainmonitor to read "The Old Forgiveness Hoke".

So jivy is his flim-flam (floydoy! floydoy!) that he not only changes Snusie's attitude toward him, but he has her weeping and sniveling because she's been so hard-hearted toward her dear loveable brother. Contritely, she spoons, between snivels, slurpies of porridge into his gulping gullet.

Still -- this is all to easy -- even for the first Flim-Flam Man in Prehistory. Why quit when you're so clearly ahead? What else can be gained?

Well, he'd hoked many of his flamish kin this day, and they had long memories of such meaness. And Snusie was an object of pity to all the clan, because of her brother's tratment of her. And now Snusie is overflowing with forgiveness because she's fooled into believing in her brother's plea for forgiveness. If only Snusie could convince the clan members about Flim-Flam's reformation, he'd have THE PERFECT COVER! Hooboy! At least it was worth a try.

Instant success! Several of his flamish kin were persuaded by Snusie's sniveling sweetness -- to their FUTURE REGRET.

Alas! Forgiving is NOT forgetting, nor is it forecasting the human weather for the morrow.

To forgive is to regive the petitioner the status he or she formerly enjoyed -- in relation to you alone. If you can forgive, the act may be more purifying for you than reconstituting of the petitioner.

But make it clear that you have not, thereby, become cosigner of any promissory notes concerning the feelings, fortunes, or fate of any other person!

Forgiveness is grace understood, not underwritten.