Happy Global Forgiveness day! Today, July 7th 2016, is Global Forgiveness Day, a holiday which was started by the Christian Embassy of Christ’s Ambassadors (CECA). The theme of today is, of course, forgiveness. Today is focused on the different ways to forgive others and ourselves.
There are many types of forgiveness. There’s mutual forgiveness, where both you and the other person apologize and forgive one another. There’s one sided forgiveness, where only one person apologizes and the other forgives. There’s open forgiveness, where someone else accepts an apology and forgives someone who did not ask for forgiveness in the first place. There’s inner forgiveness, where you look deep into yourself, accept, and forgive yourself. There’s begrudging forgiveness, where you forgive the person but keep your eye out because you don’t trust them anymore. Lastly, there’s fake forgiveness, where you accept someone’s apology but don’t forgive them at all.
The movie Pop Kowboy features main characters who have a lot to forgive and be forgiven for. Frankie, a down-on-her-luck drag queen, struggles with forgiving her mother. Frankie’s mother couldn’t handle her son living as a woman and kicked her out, shutting her out of both her inheritance and her family home. After years of being alienated, Frankie’s mother was still unable to forgive Frankie for not being the son she wanted and ends up pushing Frankie away again. Because of this, Frankie has to learn to forgive and accept her mother’s viewpoint while still accepting herself and her own choices.
Another person who needs forgiveness in the movie in Pony, the main character in Pop Kowboy. Pony is unable to forgive himself because he feels like he is a nuisance and unwanted. Pony tries to kill himself numerous times throughout the movie and almost succeeds. He feels alienated and alone, but throughout the movie, with a little tough love, he begins to accept himself the way he is. He forgives himself for being different and forgives others for not understanding him.
This movie teaches the viewers about suicide, self-love, self-acceptance, bonds, and forgiveness. Sometimes we cannot be what we want or what other people want us to be. Sometimes, we cannot be the best. We have limitations on what we can actually accomplish. In spite of this, we have to forgive others and, most importantly, we have to forgive ourselves. Watching Pop Kowboy teaches our audience that they do not have to be what other expect them to be in order to be loved, accepted, and most importantly, forgiven.
