The Sound of Revenge (67/90)

I just finished watching John Tucker Must Die.

For those who haven't seen it, it's set in high school. The star basketball player is a player with the women, dating multiples that would never associate with each other. They find out and want revenge, and meet a girl who can help them. They use her to get revenge on him. The movie is quite amusing and has a happy, if slightly predictable, ending.

But what really got me thinking was their desire for revenge. I've thought about revenge on a few people for different reasons. I've thought it through, talked about it, and thought about what exactly I'd want to do to them. There are some people who have probably deserved to have more done to them than I've done, and most of them haven't deserved my forgiveness. But I still talk to them. My revenge plans are never carried out.

Even if I were in their position, I don't think I'd be able to get revenge on someone. I don't think I have it in me. I like to believe the best in people, and hope that eventually karma will hit them harder than I ever could. If it can get to them, I silently rejoice. I don't like to let those who have an unquenchable thirst for revenge take it out on them, because most of the time it's between the two of us. Even if everyone knows they have something coming.

I'm just not a vengeful person. There have been times when I wish I was, some quite recently, in fact. I've had plans made, discussed, and on the verge of being carried out. But I've never followed through with them. Do I believe in revenge? Yes. I'm just not one to go and exact it.

I'm a passive-aggressive person, so that makes sense. I do get my revenge, even if I'm the only one who knows it. It does rely heavily on karma, though. My revenge is mostly out of my hands, and I'd actually like to have a bigger role in it. I just don't have the personality to do so.

Revenge is different than justice. I guess I hope that the world will eventually bring the person to justice, even though it seems like that's only happened once in my past. That's why we have impartial judges and juries try our cases, and hand out sentencing to criminals. I'd like to think that karma works that way. If I take justice into my own hands against these people, then it's revenge, and I might get hurt even more in the end.

But I'm perfectly fine getting back at someone whose hurt one of my friends. I guess because then I see it as justice, since I was not directly hurt by it. Even though it's still revenge in a sense, because I'm not directly hurt I see it more as a combination of revenge and justice.

Even so, I've never gone through with seeking justice from them.