Betrayal

If you have never felt the gut wrenching pain of being betrayed by someone you love, then you are very, very lucky.  I can't remember worse emotional pain other than that caused by the death of a loved one.  Betrayal often changes "everything."  The way you look at that person, the way you feel about that person, your whole impression of them can change in an instant.

Why don't children feel the same pain caused by being betrayed?  Your out in the kitchen and suddenly you hear a very loud crash come from the living room.  You rush in to find your antique vase shattered into a thousand pieces.  "Who did this?" you yell.  Both children blame the other.  Of course neither one wants to take the blame so they try to pin it on the other one.  Then a few hours later they are happily playing again and the incident is forgotten.  Is it that kids do this stuff all the time - that they betray each other so much that they become desensitized to it?

One day my son had a friend over and they were building models in his room.  Suddenly his friend came running down stairs and said "Mrs. McLellan, your son just spilled the paint all over the rug!"  I remember thinking to myself "kid, shouldn't you be watching your friend's back instead of throwing him into the lion's pen?"  Of course I didn't say that out loud. My son heard him and was really angry.  But, the very next day he called him up to come over and play again.

At what point do you suppose people feel so hurt by betrayal that they can't just forgive and forget?