more thoughts on peace

from Wendell Berry’s book “Leavings”

VII. 

Before we kill another child

for righteousness’ sake, to serve

some blissful killer’s sacred cause,

some bloody patriot’s anthem

and his flag, let us leave forever 

our ancestral lands, our holy books,

our god thoughtefied to the mean

of our smallest selves. Let us go 

to the graveyard and lie down 

forever among the speechless stones.

…

…

The Road to Peace

I just finished reading The Road to Peace by Henri Nouwen, edited by John Dear, and my spirits have been lifted. I do not feel the despair I have been feeling the past few years over the state of politics and the increasing power of the 1 percent. My road to Henri Nouwen was somewhat circuitous…I picked up the book because in my mother’s apartment because it was edited by John Dear and was on the topic of peace. Ron and I heard John Dear speak at Wildgoose this past June about the Sermon on the Mount and were moved to begin thinking seriously of how we might focus our energy on peace activism. We have each been reading other books by John Dear trying to figure this out. This book of essays written by Nouwen over his life time trying to make sense of injustices of the world and how to address them made me realize that we can’t obtain peace by making hating those whose agendas we find wrong. I realized that I need a spiritual context for working through this — as uncomfortable as I think this will make people that I am close to and share my political beliefs. I am feeling drawn to write more about this to explain a change in the way I am thinking about this. I am sharing this in short bits because if I wait until I have it all sorted out I will probably never get anything posted. Instead, I am sharing a personal journey towards a framework of love and understanding for all to move towards peace and compassionate communities as a work in progress.