P: PEACE
Is Peace Possible? Between nations, between tribes, between ourselves in our relationships and peace within our own selves, peace of heart, mind and soul? Can the warring that goes on within and without ever be calmed and the lion lie down with the lamb?
Moshe Dyan (1915-1981) past Israeli Military leader and crusader for peace:
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”.
Talk: don’t dismiss out of hand. Engage and take it from there. Listen. Who knows, one may find that there are more similarities between the two ‘negotiaters’ than one realised. The demons may become daemons.
We all have our inner demons. They rage within us. But unless they are engaged with, they remain hidden, festering in the dark shadows. And there they stay, scratching, like any problem or conflict that is swept under the carpet. Yet, those demons are enacted ‘out there’ in ways that are inappropriate and harmful, not only to ourselves but to others too.
But if we brought those demons out into the clear light of day, ‘do battle’ with them, and do the hard work demanded of us, then we may find the middle ground, acceptance of our shadow, allowing it it’s rightful place. The ego does not have to be discarded by any means, though our shadow will ‘do battle’ with it. The ego wants supremacy. The shadow needs acknowledgement that it is very much a part of us, and does not want to be ignored. It wants to be met by us, engaged with, listened to, not to be swept under the carpet. It is a kind of violence to ignore what is within us –
What is the reality of war and fighting in the name of peace? Who gains most? The propagandists of war who drum up patriotic fervour, are usually not those in the front line. They are not the ones who have their limbs blown off by bombs, shrapnel and guns; they are not the casualties of war who are gang-raped by blood thirsty war mongers; they are not the ones whose children are dead; they are not the ones whose sons and daughters return home, shattered by the horrors of the reality on the ground, air, or the seas.
At what price peace? Are there ‘just wars’? I believe there are, but now is not the place to go into this. Every nation has a right and duty to defend itself against unjust aggression.
‘We have a terrible Love of War’ as James Hillman says. There is no more intense an experience than being in the middle of the archetypal forces of LIfe and Death, fully in the middle. Can this tension be held?
Are our inner demons played out on the world stage? Can we start with ourselves and wrestle with our own inner demons and transform them into helpful daemons, thereby playing our part in promoting peace?
Gandhi: Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.
Namaste.
18 Comments on P : PEACE
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We just have to spread as much peace as we can, from our closest families outward.
#atozchallenge, Kristen’s blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com
So great to hear from you Kristen thank you.
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies”.
You know how you read something that was so simple but makes absolute sense because it’s the truth? This one hit me like a train.
Thanks for this reminder 🙂
Thank you Ria, yes it gets me every time too!
Thanks Susan, it does seem as if there is a thread in the themes, even if not fully pre-formed in my mind. As the days go by I do wonder what to write about and when the day comes, the decision I make, is sometimes different to what I had originally imagined.
One letter leads to another as you eloquently draw the themes. It seems the unlikely are what bring us onto the difficult journey of living as a fully as we can.
When I was in college, I heard Moshe Dyan speak, and it was amazing! A heckler in the audience tried to jar him. He said, “These people came to see me, not you.” He had such a presence that the heckler quickly shut up, and we never heard from him or any other hecklers again. Moshe Dyan was a true leader who commanded respect.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Thanks Joyce for your comment and for saying about when you heard him! I was always half in love with that man.
Don’t remember who said it but “When the power of love becomes greater than the love of power we will have peace.”
Thanks Val – too true. A lovely saying and thanks for giving it here.
For a limited time, yeah, I think it’s possible. But not forever and ever. People are violent.
Sonia Lal
Thanks Sonia ..we all have violence within us. It does not need to be acted out as some do.
Beautifully said. Peace begins in the small spaces.
Thank you Elizabeth – maybe at home.
First of all love the photo. I have never quite seen anything like it… Wow P for Peace, you are a braver woman than I am for tackling it. I just end up sounding idealistic, naive or like a pot smoking hippie, you make the same point in a way that cannot be discounted or disregarded… and that photo is enough to make me want to banish a few more of my own demons.
Thanks Ida! I fear that this is how I sound but WTH. It just sort of got me and I wanted to say something.
No, we don’t want to hear it, but every word of what you say is true. You and I can give peace a chance, but we aren’t the ones in control are we?
Thanks Natasha – you’re right. We’re not in control of larger forces but we are in control of smaller ones. The sea is made up of countless drops of water … we can be a drop that makes part of the wave.