Peace is a slipperier concept than you might at first think. For starters, what kind of peace am I grateful for?
Do I mean inner peace? Yes. Do I mean domestic peace? Yes. Do I mean peace in my community? Yes. Do I mean peace in the world? Yes. I am grateful for whatever moments, or fragments, or aspirational visions of peace I can grasp.
It seems ironic to me that everyone seems to want peace, or at least they say they do--but still there actually is so little of it to be encountered in the world. If we really want it so badly, why don't we have it? Lots of reasons, I think. There are many forces working against peace, no matter whether we are talking about personal, inner harmony, or our larger communities. We live in a perpetual state of seeking a balance.
Forces such as a struggle to survive, to thrive, and to control aspects of one's life are not necessarily bad, in and of themselves, but there are times when they produce strife. Forces such as greed, hatred, and intolerance normally are looked upon as evil or sinful--in others. We tend to give ourselves a "pass" when they crop up in our own mental landscapes.
Is competition good, or does it stir up divisiveness? The answer to both is: it can be/can. Is self-interest essential to individual survival? Yes. Can it also lead to destructive selfishness? Absolutely.
I think the first step for any of us is to find a way within our own selves to cultivate peace. As Anne Frank said:
The imperative need to act lovingly toward others is affirmed in many faith traditions, but you do not have to be Christian, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or a follower of any religion at all, to see the sense in this. If we treat others with love and respect, it is much easier for them to respond in kind.
But it is the "love and respect for others" part where so many of our peace initiatives break down. If we go into a situation believing that the "other" is angry or hostile, it is harder to display peacefulness.
If we start with the assumption that the "other" is stupid, evil, or automatically wrong, we have already decided not to respect them. Granted, there are a lot of people whose opinion we find it hard to respect! But we don't have to like what they say to agree that every person deserves a foundational level of respect, if we seek for peaceful relations with them.
I think respect is the essential difference between the peacekeeper and the peacemaker, no matter what the setting or the scope of the dispute.
In our lives, our local communities, our social media, our national discourse, and our international relations, I think the people we need most are peacemakers. Blessings upon them! How can we find ways to be them? The road is deceptively simple. Kind of like the idea of peace itself.
IMAGES: The "Seven Days of Gratitude" design is my own creation, for well or ill. If for some reason You'd like to use it, please feel free to do so, but I request attribution and a link back to this post. The "You cannot find peace" quote image is from The Things We Say; the Anne Frank quote image is from Affirm Your Life; the Tabarani 6067 quote image is from e Islamic Quotes; the Angie Lichtenstein quote image is from Pixteller. I profoundly thank each one!
No comments:
Post a Comment