Absolution and Redemption and Second Chances
America has always been known for insistence on belief in the Judeo-Christian concepts of absolution and redemption. In America people have traditionally been given (or allowed to take) second chances. Americans have never expected their fellow citizens to commit hara-kiri for their blunders and sins. We've always reacted with public shock and disapproval if someone's repentance was demonstrated by death or disappearance. Inability to try to start over has always been weakness in our public eyes, and we, as a nation, tend to look down on weakness. In other cultures people are required to live with the consequences of their actions and choices, but Americans, for better or worse, have always been able to start over. Even our Canadian neighbors, who sometimes seem so much the same as us--if only in our eyes--are more bound by consequences than we are. My Canadian cousin remarked that she was amazed when I took a major step in life and then casually took a ...