I've never really understood how this "forgiveness" thing works.

If I go on for a long time saying mean, insulting, vile yet heart-felt things about someone and then after he apologizes I no longer say those things: does that mean I never really meant them in the first place, or does it mean that yeah I meant them but he apologized so WGAS, let's go have a beer?

If the latter: what happened to the reason for all the anger, does it just disappear and bother you no longer?

What ever happened to "payback?"