As things become more intense around the world, it seemed a good time to consider what Peacemaking is and isn’t.
We’ve been using the visual of cupped hands, holding the whole community, everyone cradled in the same love and compassion together. When those hands separate vertically, so that some people are more held and regarded than others, there is disparity and inequality and an opportunity for peacemaking.
Restoring inclusion and equality happens in many ways, as we’ve been seeing in the featured articles. But what is not peacemaking?
The obvious examples we can probably recite in our sleep: discrimination on the basis of gender, age, skin color, religion, nationality and language, etc. Economic disparity and exclusion from educational and job opportunities. War and aggression. And so on, a depressing list.
But sometimes we destroy peace without even realizing that’s what we’re doing. Marianne Williamson tells about a dream she had one time, during the Vietnam war when she was so active in anti-war demonstrations, the vehemence of the doves against the hawks. God came to her and said, “Marianne, you are such a hawk.” She protested, “No, God, I’m a dove!” God just smiled and said, “No, Marianne, you are really a hawk.”
You can be a hawk in pursuit of peace, hurling insults and slogans and hatred at the hawks in as warlike a demonstration as you are protesting against. As Murshid SAM once said, “I’d like to go to a peace demonstration where the demonstrators are actually demonstrating Peace.”
At our camps, Bernie wants us to offer teaching moments rather than punishment – we all need teaching and guidance sometimes, and as a community we can offer that to each other instead of criticizing or condemning.
Whenever we vehemently take sides, when we absolutely categorize someone as “bad” or “destructive,” when we lay down ultimatums, we are not making peace. Can we stop, breathe, picture the hands coming back together, and relax away from polarized positions? There’s a place in the circle for everyone. This is one of the most difficult teachings we ever face, but as Peacemakers, it is paramount.
