It’s gray and raining. Raining as if the earth itself were crying. As if the gray “inside” me and the gray “outside” were one and the same. As if the very light of the world was going out.
We’ve had so many gray, shattering moments over the last seven or so years. The election of a wanna-be dictator, who put his own darkness as more important than the life of anyone else. Luckily, we also had some relief, some sunshine, as he, despite his lies, was voted out of office and now faces prosecutions for some of his most major crimes. We had a life-shattering pandemic. We had all the weather disasters signaling the climate itself was shattering. We had the invasion of Ukraine by another dictator.
But this…. Hamas invading Israel and committing such torture, of children and of so many others. And then, the whole world waited to see what horrors would follow in retribution, as Israel attempts to free the hostages and end Hamas forever. A whole world seemingly brought to the edge. And then the violence continued.
However, as many have said, an idea can’t be killed. Many of us are acting to limit or control the violence. But the killing, maiming, torture, and displacement continues. It must somehow stop.
What kind of humanity will emerge from these flames? Who will we, we individuals, and we as a species, show ourselves to be? This moment is all we have.
What face will we see as ourselves? What will we do? Will we lay blame, or will we model compassion? Will we care more for securing our assumptions and beliefs than perceiving the reality of the whole⎼ the reality of ourselves, of all humanity, all life? After 70-80 years of such grief, and historic trauma going back before that for years and years, of fear, anger, and horror, compassion is not the first response that might come to us. But what about those of us not in Israel and Palestine?
Whenever we feel tempted to believe we know the one and only truth, we must look more carefully. Many of us focus on Israel oppressing the Palestinians for years, keeping millions locked into a tiny space under inhumane conditions. And this, I think, is part of the truth. Or we might see that Hamas has been secretly plotting for years for this moment; planning to utterly destroy the Jewish state, maybe destroy all Jewish people they find. And this, too, is part of the truth. Or maybe other nations in the area have been contributing to keeping Palestinians locked up in Gaza, to serve their own purposes? The situation is so complex; so much I don’t know.
But why close our minds with blame, and justify it with hate, instead of feeling our shared humanity? Why must we demonize one person or group? Why must blame come first? Too often, blame paves the road for violence to travel on. Can’t our pain unite us? We need to quickly recognize what or who is dangerous to us. But can’t we use less distorted distinctions than those based solely on race, nationality, religion, gender, etc. to do so?
Many claim it’s just human nature to create in and out groups. But whatever we say about human nature we can find factual evidence for the opposite. Certainly, we humans have clear biases, abilities and inabilities, tendencies. But maybe the French existentialist philosopher J. P. Sartre had it right when he said, in his book Being and Nothingness, our existence precedes our essence. We create human nature with our actions.
Maybe this demonizing is just a culturally conditioned habit, a way of thinking, or simplifying of what’s infinitely sided to 2-sided? We spend much of our waking time cuddled up in our rational mind. And this can be wonderful and useful at times. But our discursive or languaged mind works by creating an inside versus an outside. To define a word like up, we oppose it with down. Good holds onto bad; warm needs cold. We can’t end cold by eliminating it from existence. Warm and cold go together. Likewise, we can’t just eliminate differences without creating new differences. But we can let go of demonizing.
I don’t know how to free the hostages. If Israel stops the invasion of Gaza right now⎼ after the release of 2 American hostages, and horrors like the missile strike of the Ahli Arab Hospital, which killed 500 people or so⎼ maybe an opening might be found? Reliable evidence seems to show it probably wasn’t Israel who attacked the hospital. Maybe it was…. It’s important to learn the truth; and to hear the truth once spoken, despite anyone who would shut our ears to it. But whomever it was, it’s a reason to stop. Can the threat of further killing force the freeing of hostages? The freeing of Gaza? I don’t know.
Maybe if Israel continues, Hezbollah will enter the war further? Iran? The US and others? Maybe Israel can eliminate Hamas as a fighting organization today. But tomorrow? Hamas planned their attack to evoke this incredible level of violence. Maybe, if the fighting stops, and Israel leaves Gaza, the Palestinians themselves will rid their land of Hamas. And finally, a Palestinian state and a secure Israel will emerge from the ashes. I don’t know. Can such a miracle occur?
What do we know for sure? People are dying. People are suffering. Can we agree that as long as there are wars, resources that could go to life will go to death? That the destruction in Israel and Gaza hurts all of us. It even hurts the environment, the earth we all depend on for life. And when fear and hate burns in one of us, it could ignite any of us. A secure, prosperous Israel and a secure, prosperous Palestine might be mutually dependent.
Maybe we all recognize this moment requires all our clarity and caring. This is our challenge. To be strong. To be informed. To resist false narratives; to be very selective about what stories we tell ourselves and others about what’s happening. We can’t change the past. We might not be able to change what happens in the next moment in the Middle East. But we can influence our own response and thus, maybe, the future, or help somehow now.
Maybe peace begins with recognizing how our way of thinking might be clouding our perceiving and feeling. Maybe what I’m saying is a dream. But I know whenever we think we’re absolutely right, we should make sure we’re not absolutely wrong. We must recognize what blinds and what binds us. Whenever we perceive a demon, we must recognize what gives it life.
I have no answers, only these cautions, hopes⎼ and encouragement to act to bring peace. When we pick up a gun or wave a fist, we must first see the human we aim it at. And ask: what kind of person, what kind of species, are we creating with our thoughts and actions?
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Unsplash