And this I believe

And this I believe
by

Donan

I dealt extensively with a very angry person this week. Not angry at me really, just angry in general…but it was an invasive anger and it touched me such that I felt wet with it. As I was driving earlier today, I began to think about some of the angry people I have known. I drove past an elderly man sitting on a log at the roadside smoking a cigarette. I had previously made his acquaintance…he is not an angry person even though he lives what I would call a difficult life. A conversation with him will quickly show a deeply seated unshakeable joy for life. I wanted to push out a wide envelope of love that would brush past all whom I encountered. Though his face showed as haggard, the memory of our brief encounter moved me as I passed. I turned onto the interstate.

What if I touch those filled with hatred…those who lash out or even seek to destroy that which is good? What will happen?

Hatred and love are not so very far apart. People with a great capacity for hatred also have as great a capacity for love and good, but that capacity has been turned on its head for whatever reason—perhaps from dealing with psychological pain and disillusionment. I often notice people who love in one area and hate in another…sometimes this brings a violence which is both internally and externally manifested.

If our battle is for peace and our battle is for life then it must begin inside each of us as a battle to love, to care, to touch anytime we are accosted by the energy of love turned on its head…either from within or from without. If we ever want to put an end to any violent conflict this will ultimately be accomplished not by the right leaders nor finding the right compromise when in conflict—it will be accomplished because we loved when we could have hated, we uplifted when we could have oppressed, we cared when we could have been callous, and we understood when we were disbelieved. And this, I believe.

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