Wish I was out west, covering these epic fires and the countless human/climate angles, but...

...on Labor Day, a bloody moon began rising in my left eye.
When I closed my right eye, my world looked like this.
Within a few hours...

..it looked like this and I remembered the doctor from decades before who told me this day would come.

It all started back when I wore 80’s glasses because it was the 80’s.
I was at a college party on PCH, holding a cup of keg beer and talking to a friend when a Pepperdine baseball star sucker-punched me with such force, my glasses flew over the railing and onto the beach below

He had the Dickensian name of Scott Shockey.
We had never met and never spoke afterwards so I’m still unsure of his motive.
Rumor had it that he was mad at me for getting his GF in trouble with her landlord by

shooting off a fire extinguisher in her apartment parking lot after a party the year before. (I don’t recall this but if true, I blame David Letterman’s bad influence).

Anyhoo, I woke up in the Eye Center at UCLA where they were waiting for the blood to clear so they could see

whether the retina had detached. It hadn’t, but they said it was only a matter of time.
I didn’t have insurance so that punch was a first lesson in how hospital bills can ruin your credit for years. The eye developed cataracts in my 30s so I had the lens replaced in my 40s.

But I’m among the lucky. I have insurance now! And access to great doctors who did an emergency reattachment with a laser on Thursday. There is now a bubble of gas holding the retina as it heals which is like having a carpenter’s level or snow globe built into my head. Bonus.

But here’s the amazing part!

I now know without a doubt that I have somehow forgiven the guy who hit me.

Wish I could say it was some 9-step Zen process but it is probably just time and the wisdom that wallowing in resentment and eye-for-an-eye fantasies are poisonous.

I’m sure it’s harder after more severe violations, but after random violence when you feel so powerless, the ONE thing you control is radical forgiveness.

You don’t have to condone but when you let go of the anger, you’re free forever.

To test this, I Googled Scott Shockey...

And instead of old resentments, felt only empathy learning how a fluke injury ended his major league dreams in AAA and he spent the rest of his life as a cop.
I truly hope he found honor on the job and learned (as my job taught me) that it is often hurt people who hurt people.

So take it from this self-harm guru, the next time your personal Scott Shockey comes a-haunting, pour a favorite beverage, sit down outside and to “No Hard Feelings” by @theavettbros , breathe deep and let go. Rinse. Repeat.

You’ll heal faster.