Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Peace Check-In


We are almost two months into the year and I thought I’d assess my status on becoming more peaceful.  In a word, slow.  In more than a few words, personally I still come out with sarcastic remarks but quickly excuse it with “just kidding” so I can say that I am more conscious of what I am saying.  It’s a very slow process to change poor habits.

On a deeper level, I am trying to balance my sense of outrage with the escalating crisis in our world.  The continued atrocities perpetrated by the terrorists around the world is truly incomprehensible to anyone with a modicum of sanity left in their soul.  I cannot fathom how there can be people like this in the world.  I try to analyse what motivates them because surely no one can have this much rage against anyone merely in the name of religion?  I cannot understand how people who have been raised in a civilized, Western country can be recruited into becoming a terrorist.  I do not understand how anyone can be so barbaric as to behead innocent people.

Coincidentally I am reading an amazing book called “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada which was written in 1947 about regular folks living in Berlin during the war.  The author was German and lived and experienced some of these incidents.  For those who may have read “A Fine Balance” and who became so engaged with the characters in that book you will appreciate how incredible this book is when you find yourself first being outraged by the negative characters’ crimes and then as they cross paths with the Gestapo or other Nazis your sympathy becomes active for these poor wretches. 

So why do I bring this book up as I am talking about terrorists?  It’s because I am trying to understand the other side of the question but with little success.  I simply cannot understand how violence is supposed to solve any question.  It’s like quarrelling with a sibling when you are 7 years old, you may come to cuffs with her but nothing is solved until you are talking to each other again. 

Peace 101 – you don’t get it with violence.

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