FORGIVENESS & BRIDGING DIVIDES
Care Packages for the Man Who Shot Him
A story about the human capacity for forgiveness
Many years ago, I attended an event at an organization that was also hosting an exhibit called “Guns in the Hands of Artists.” Inspired by a young boy who was killed by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting, artist Brian Borrello took guns confiscated by police with the goal of transforming objects that had been used destructively into something more constructive.
On my way into the event, I asked the security guard about the exhibit, which I’d expected to see in the building lobby but instead found only damp tile and a stand with plastic covers for my wet umbrella. Her eyes lit up as she told me the art was on display in the main lobby of the organization upstairs. “It’s amazing,” she said with enthusiasm that brightened that dreary evening, and urged me to let her know what I thought of it later.
On my way out of the building a few hours later, I stopped to tell her how powerful the images felt to me. We talked for a bit about how art can move people and help us see things — both issues and actual, tangible things — in a different light. In that vein, I mentioned “The Armor of Light,” a documentary film that follows a right-leaning Evangelical minister and a…
