CAN WE KEEP THIS CONVERSATION OPEN? A friend recently challenged me on mentioning suffering in Gaza, concerned that I might be ignorant of suffering inflicted by brutal Arab Muslim regimes on African Jews. We can look at the numbers and say - yes, 3000 Palestinian deaths in a few years is much more than under 1000 Israeli deaths, but much less than 200 000 deaths in Darfur. These numbers are not just numbers. They are lives. Precious human lives. These numbers also represent power differentials in individual conflicts. They represent oppression, suffering, loss of dreams, knowledge, insight and culture. Families not fulfilled, innovations not created, land not tended, communities not celebrated. Genocide sucks. No matter which era. No matter which race or religion. How do we each meet these suffering at this scale? Do we have the ability to discover our own relationship to personal, local, national and world conflicts. To find out what it means to us? What it triggers in us? What it inspires us to stand for? Do we have the ability to share with each other our fears and our passions? Our perception and our ignorance? I wholeheartedly believe that these are the conversations that we must have, because in keeping the conversation open, we have the opportunity to dispel our own ignorance, through the light of awareness that comes from direct personal and communal inquiry. So, this post is my response to my friends challenge, and this poem: Keep your mind open to the truth, because there is always a deeper truth than what you currently believe. Keep your eyes open to suffering, which is happening in every conflict, inside oppressor and victim alike. Keep your ears open to the stories which others need to tell, to come to peace with their own experience in the presence of your deep listening. Keep your heart open to love which calls to you from within every person and thing in existence… even those you fear or hate. … And I welcome your responses too. With humility,
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:32:05 +0000
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