PEACE -Its not as difficult as it sounds.. I remember way back in Year 10, last day of Term 2 it was. Wed just been given our school reports at the end of the day and as I was leaving the office, one of my mates ran up and said Dude, you have to come to A block RIGHT NOW.. theres a MASSIVE fight about to happen. I was more interested in what my report said than seeing someone get punched, but I followed him slowly anyway, reading what my teachers had written as I went. We got around to the back of A-block, I was still reading what my English teacher had written, and although I was aware that there were about 20 kids there, I was not paying attention at all. Then suddenly, I felt the silence. No-one was saying anything. 15 or 20 16 yr old boys standing in the one spot and there was NO NOISE. I looked up from my report and realised why.. they were all standing around in a big circle staring at ME. Except for one kid, Dylan, who was standing in the middle also staring at me - but he was MAD. He looked at me and said I hear youve been talking sh*t about me ..and thats when I realised what was happening. I was the kid who was about to get beaten up.. My heart sank, I felt like a very small fish in a tank full of piranha. This guy was my mate! We sat together in all sorts of classes, played together at lunchtimes and everything. In that moment, my heart broke and I understood the meaning of the word betrayal. I was also pretty sure I was about to get a lesson in physical pain to go with it. It was after school hours, all the teachers were gone, there was a ring of lads there to ensure I couldnt simply walk away and I was utterly alone.. there was literally NO way out of this situation. As he stepped towards me and started swearing and pushing me, I was very conscious to keep my school bag slung over my shoulder. The unofficial rules of a schoolyard punch-on dictate that it must show an outward appearance of being a fair fight, so as long as one hand was busy holding my bag up, I was ok. I knew that as soon as I put my bag down, hed go for me.. I pleaded with him for ages, asked him to tell me EXACTLY what I had said about him, who had told him, when I had said it.. he had no answers. I realised that he was making the whole thing up just so he could fight me but I had NO idea why! By this time, he had pushed me back against the wall of A block and was right up to my face just waiting for me to make a move. ANY move. I remember thinking that I could probably take him down if there was no other way out. I was a good 6 or 7 inches taller than him and considerably heavier, but Ive always detested violence. (The only fight Ive EVER been in was with my little brother at the age of about 7, and I dont think that counts!) My desire for peace over-ruled that thought and I continued to plead for this to end. I said something like: Look, you can beat me up if you have to, but Im not gonna fight back. Youre my mate and I dont want to do this. I remember dropping my bag and just holding my arms out wide and thinking, thats it, hes gonna KNOCK. ME. OUT. But he didnt. He made some sort of insult about how weak I was, turned his back on me and left. The crowd dissipated, I finally breathed OUT and gathered my things and, still shaking like a leaf, went to find mum in the car. That was the last day of that particular school term. For the WHOLE 2 week holidays, I stressed and cried and worried about what had happened and most of all WHY it had happened - because there was NO rhyme or reason to it. When school went back, not knowing what else to do - I treated Dylan as if it HADNT happened. I smiled and said Hi and everything went back to normal. I never asked him about it, never held it against him and never asked the OTHER friend (the one I followed to the fight) if he knew it was going to be me that was beaten up.. I just let it go! We all stayed friends until the end of high school. Ive looked back on that day thousands of times in the last 20 something years and Ive repeatedly come to the conclusion that I did the RIGHT THING. Any other course of action would have resulted in some kind of violence, Im convinced of that. So although I was scared (terrified actually) in the moment, even though I knew Id be laughed at for not fighting back, I stuck to my principles and what I knew that I knew that I knew was the RIGHT thing. Id always felt vaguely pacifistic before then, but that experience solidified pacifism inside of me. From then on, no matter what happened I always sought a peaceful answer in everything in my life. I wasnt a Christian back then, but I can now see how Gods hand was there in bringing that trait out in me through the adversity of the moment. Thank you, Lord, for putting the concept of peace into my heart when I was younger.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 02:13:01 +0000
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