To Honor the Victims … (11/18/15)
My Friends, we have all been shaken to the core by recent events — at the very least the events that took place in Paris last Friday night. And because we have been shaken to the core, we all have an innate desire to do something — to do something to bring solace to the victims; to do something to stop the pain; to do something to quell the terror; to do something to see that such suffering is never felt again.
And yet even though we all feel these desires innately & purely, many of us are acting on those feelings in highly counterproductive ways — ways that make the suffering worse, and ways that are actually encouraging ISIS to grow stronger and inflict even MORE harm in the future. Albeit understandably, such people are angrily calling for justice … such people are aggressively calling for retribution … such people are violently calling for revenge … such people are loudly calling for war.
And what will be the inevitable result of such choices? What has always been the inevitable result whenever violent responses have been chosen in response to violence?
More violence …
More hatred …
More discord …
More pain …
& more suffering …
… ALWAYS.
And yet THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE available to us; an alternative THAT WORKS … Granted, it is an alternative that requires great Courage — FAR more courage than any act of violence or aggression, and yet it is an alternative, if persistently applied — due to the very nature of the human psyche, that is guaranteed to succeed.
And this alternative is open statements of Forgiveness …
This alternative is open acts of Compassion …
This alternative is open expressions of Kindness …
This alternative is open effusions of LOVE & open showings of Unity.
My Friends, with VERY few exceptions, we humans are hard-wired first & foremost t respond to Kindness with Kindness — to Care for “the hand that feeds” — to protect and cherish those who are acting as members of “our herd”. This isn’t some “foofy”, impractical philosophical principle — This is a simple, fundamental sociological FACT.
We desperately need Peace — this much is clear, and yet Peace will never come until WE choose to be “the bigger man” (or the “nobler woman”) and start treating our enemies Peace-fully … We will never convince ISIS fighters (or any other enemies) with our words, and we certainly will NEVER win using violence … And yet we CAN remind them what they all once knew as small children — namely, that we are ALL members of the same Family; that when they kill us to avenge their own murdered loved ones, they are not avenging those crimes at all — but are rather perpetrating new ones; that the only way for them to know Peace is to be Peace-full … We can remind them of these things, my Friends — but only if we have the courage to SHOW THEM the same.
Peace to you all — today & evermore … S
;