I feel the pain

Hi Love,

I am still sliding into tears unexpectedly.  I watched a video of Hollande saying they were going to be ruthless in going after whoever did this.

More tears.

I wrote an article once that opined that violence is never they way to peace.  It has never worked...ever.  The bank robbers that the cowboy heroes were trying to kill simply morphed into the mafia during Prohibition which morphed into all the current problems with the current Prohibition on marijuana...No one won. No one wins.  They players simply change.

(I found later that I had won a Puke Award from a group of conservatives.  I was very proud!)

I was reading a Bible story during First Day School years ago. We were reading about two warring people in the Mid-East. I remember I looked up at the kids and said incredulously, "We are still fighting the same war." Names are the only thing that change.

It is my problem with Star Wars and Harry Potter. The premise of each is that we have to fight back, that violence is the way to peace. Yet the only way violence can "create" peace is through suppression.  They seem to believe that only by complete control can we live in peace. That seems to be the point of ID chips and the NSA.  Suppression may be "peaceful"  but what is peace without joy?

I remember a friend who works with creating dialog between Christian and Muslim in Indonesia.  She was speaking in the US after 9/11. The people she spoke to, who asked her questions - they didn't want to know how to destroy the enemy. Rather, they asked, "Why do they hate us?"

I was also thinking about the video of the young Syrian boy who tore into my heart. (And I just realized AFSC never responded to me!) 

Pain...more pain.

I remember how soft and open we were after 9/11. My ex called to make sure we were all okay. My children gathered. Being with those we loved seemed important. We felt the pain, even though it didn't touch our family.

I feel the same softness today...the same opening.

It seems we can say,  "How dare you hurt us!?!"  And we can join with Hollande and be ruthless.  It is a first reaction. You hit me, I hit you back. 

Or we can sit with this pain...124 people are dead...it hurts, it is shocking...it leaves us bleeding.  Then we can look at the people of the Mid-East and say, "We get it. We feel the pain today that you feel so much more often.  We get it.  We feel it.  We will stop.  It is done."

But will we?

I think of people I know who are in pain. I think of myself and the pain I carry. I think about the havoc it has caused in my life.

I feel the pain.  I understand their pain. I want to be done causing pain.

I want the joy.  And I don't know if I have ever had more than glimmers.

This hurts...


Love and hugs, lots of hugs, from Clare