Discipline, Wise Restraint, And Majestic Courage

As everyone feels each day, we are in the midst of a very challenging and conflict filled time. We hear of, and possibly see, great injustices in many corners of the world. We see political and business leaders, in other lands or our own, who concern and upset us. We choose to, or are drawn to, debate with family, friends and neighbors about terrorism, peace, war, security, evil, good, response, responsibility, ... so many feelings and concerns. Everyone, regardless of which side of an issue they see themselves, is challenged by or challenges other "sides", thus raising a wide range of counter-arguments. Through all of this emotional and intellectual churn, the supposed goal is to find peace, security and harmony.

How can one find this peace - a true, global and lasting peace? How can one help bring about such peace? How can one help spread this peace? Can one be a leader, in some way, towards peace? What does it mean to be a leader for peace? Where are the current leaders of nonviolent solutions? Where are the new architects and practitioners of peace? What role can any one of us play? We have so many questions in need of response.

Today I came across some very powerful, very pertinent statements from some of the great nonviolence and human-rights leaders from around the world. Their words are great inspirations and, together with the vision and actions of these people, help illustrate appropriate direction in this very trouble-filled time.

"We must first realize that ecological and social and economic issues are all deeply intertwined. There can be no solution to one without a solution to the others.

Like cold geometric shapes, political and economic systems are abstractions that look good on paper, but they cannot nourish our need for living beauty or provide a model for the survival of our species. Only nature can do that."

      Jean-Michel Cousteau

In our recent history, we have experienced various architects of peace and human rights -Bishop Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Cezar Chavez, Thick Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King, Jr., ... Each is a model of peace and love. But each is something more. They are recognized because they have illustrated and lived approaches that are different from the prevailing modes, because of their vision and courage, because they dared to envision the seemingly unattainable. It is because these people became living examples of peace, that we know them as true leaders.

Today it can feel as if individuals or governments or corporations are on a binge to prove that each is the strongest or the fastest or the most right. In "our" god's name, for "our" country's honor, from "our" perspective's sense of right, ... they challenge another's god's name, another's country's honor, another's person's sense of right. All are using the same words, but the words are simply (if aggressively) aimed in opposing directions.

Perhaps we need different words, or perhaps we need to use words differently. Wielding words differently leads to different approaches, which lead to different paradigms. But changing the direction that we seem to be heading seems beyond what any one of us can achieve. Is it possible that our own words can have an effect? Since none of us feels like a great leader, what can an individual do?

Each day I am surprised at the number of people I talk with who have a feeling of hopelessness or of helplessness or of fear. Even the most peace-oriented friends seem to settle on the phrase, "Well, what else can be done?"

But fear can only beget more fear. Even the fear that our political or military leaders will do something awful is living with a fear, is continuing a cycle of fear, is keeping the "fear cycle" in motion.

Without, to begin with, thinking about how to bring peace throughout the world, what can we each do in our daily lives to at least make a change in that direction? Can we help break the cycle? What can we say, much less do? Can our words, our approach to discussing the issues, play a role?

Consider a current and often used comment. It is something that we each might say several times a day as the questions and sound-bites and news-clips circle around us while we are told about potential weapons of mass destruction or terrorism and as we hear about possible war (about choosing to enter into war, no less). I hear this phrase every day:

What else can be done? I guess we have no choice but to go to war.

Contrast this with the an alternative phrasing:

What else can be done? But I wish we could find a peaceful solution.

By simply changing the object of the question, the desire has at least moved from sad resolve to hopeful desire. Now contrast each of these with another phrasing:

I wish we could find a peaceful solution. But what else can be done?

Each says much the same thing. None offer grand (or even petite) solutions. None are beyond an individual's basic realm of actions. None seem to be strong statements at all. In fact, each is a simple, personal statement of concern. But as we repeat them, a difference becomes evident. There is a difference in tone. There is a very strong difference in tone and attitude. The first asks a question that is on everyone's mind, but turns to acceptance of violence. The second is quite different. While it still anchors with the quandary, it turns to hope and motivates peace.

Is the third phrasing any different? It uses the same words, only the words are ordered differently. Again:

I wish we could find a peaceful solution. But what else can be done?

Surely the third is grounded differently. It is grounded and centered on peace. The primary focus is around peaceful resolution. It begins with peace and shows a desire for peace at the very first, before it turns to the open issues of quandary and of disconnection.

This difference in tone is felt and understood by those with whom we talk. As this different tone is used, it challenges and breaks tones of violence and despair. It creates and spreads a new tone, an alternative tone, a tone of peace and of hope.

Thus, in our daily lives, in our on-going conversations and discussions, by an act as simple as reordering our words, we can create and help spread a significantly different message. And this tone is reinforced and reverberates and echoes as it is more broadly used. What might seem like a lone butterfly's wings flapping far away, builds to broad, interconnected, societal winds of change bringing forth a vastly new tone.

Can this phrasing be improved upon? No doubt. In fact, I will offer another phrasing that is the even stronger and more compelling:

I wish we could find a peaceful solution. And what can be done?

We can find inspiration from:

"It fills me with deep humility and gratitude to know that I have been chosen as the recipient of this foremost of earthy honors.

I do not consider this merely an honor to me personally, but a tribute to the discipline, wise restraint, and majestic courage of the millions of gallant ... persons of good will who have followed a nonviolent course in seeking to establish a reign of justice and a rule of love across this nation of ours. It is also gratifying to know that the nations of the world recognize the ... movement in this country as so significant a moral force as to merit such recognition.

... This award also brings with it a demand for deepening one's commitment of nonviolence as a philosophy of life and reminds us that we have only begun to explore the powerful spiritual and moral resources which are possible through this way of life. We are also challenged to face the international implications of nonviolence for we know that there can be no justice in our society unless there is peace in the world."

We wish for a peaceful solution. And what can be done to achieve this goal?

Michael Eldredge

February 2003

(c) 2003, M J Eldredge / 7Forward