Jakhu 1

Ankita Jakhu

Professor Neuffer

English 3 Section 75

7/26/2015

Journal entry 2 Chapter 8 - Wilma Derksen

Reynold had the best intentions with he created the three strikes law after his daughter

Kimbers death. He wanted to make sure that what happened to Kimber would never happen to

someone else. Even though Reynolds had the best intentions when he was making this law, it

ended up doing more harm than good. This makes me think of all the times I tried to do

something or for someone with the best intentions and it ended up going really badly. Sometimes

we end up so emotional that we try to do good things but don't necessarily think of the entire

outcome. Reynolds three strikes law ended up on the u-curve but on the right side. He ended up

knowing more about his daughter's death then he could have handled. How much of something

can we really handel? We always think the more we know the better. The more knowledge we

consume the better off we are. Reynolds proved this wrong, he knew so much about Kimbers

death that it drove him emotionally crazy. He ended up ruining his marriage and life. So maybe

knowing too much of something isn't always a good thing. The u-curve also shows that knowing

too little is satisfactory either. You need to know enough that you can find peace and be able

grieve.

Wilma Derksen had lost her daughter Candace similarly to Reynolds story. Candace was

kidnapped and tortured. Derksen knew limited information about her daughter's death. Derksen

was also warned about what holding on to something such as her daughter's murder would turn

out to be like. She would turn into an aggressive and selfish person. Her actions would have

Jakhu 2

destroyed her friendship, marriage and sanity. Wilma Derksen made the outrageous decision to

forgive the man that murdered her daughter. This is something that is really difficult to do.

Forgiving someone that has killed your own child. As a mother you are supposed to care and

love your child. How can one just simply forgive the murderer of their child? It’s not easy to

forgive someone especially in a situation like this. To me Derksen is an inspiring woman, she

had the ability to overlook such a horrifying action and find peace, something Reynolds couldn’t

do. Derksen turned out to be the stronger person, sometimes having disadvantages are helpful.

“A man employs the full power of the state in his grief and ends up plunging his

government into a fruitless and costly experiment. A woman who walks away from a promise of

power finds the strength to forgive - and save her friendship, her marriage, and her sanity. The

world is turned upside down.” To me this sums up the entire chapter. Reynolds took his grief out

on society and ended up making things worse even though he had good intentions. Derksen

decided to forgive the man who murdered her daughter and saved her life and sanity.