Did you ever think there might be a fault line passing underneath your living room: A place in which your life is lived ... unaware that just beneath you is the unseen seam of great plates that strain through time? And that your life, already spilling over the brim, could be invaded, sent off in a new direction, turned aside by forces you were warned about but not prepared for? Shelves could be spilled out, the level floor set at an angle in some seconds' shaking. You would have to take your losses, do whatever must be done next.
No matter how sure any one of us was about the conflict with Iraq, until the invasion actually happened, the impact of the decision could not be felt. Until the United States and British forces crossed that line, the world and its international struggles were as they had been for decades. Now, pre-emptive strikes, claiming the name of peace without allied consensus, have been introduced into the global vocabulary, creating a living reality which has profoundly changed the nature of our world community. The plates have shifted, the earthquake begun, creating a gaping, cavernous wound in our already fragile interdependence. The ground is uneven, we are off balance and we have no conception of the tremors to come.
I have no doubt we who have attacked will prevail in the physical war. I also have no doubt that what has been done will take generations to heal. Our children' lives will be shaped in many ways by our present behavior. Some say it was necessary ... that we had to take international law into our own hands. I have to agree with the Pope on this one: this war threatens the fate of humanity.
After the plates shift and the ground shaken, there are seismic waves. Gravity points seem to change and we remain, for a time, off balance. There are many indications of our lack of balance these last weeks:
We are off balance, we are on shaky ground....
Unless we look within, unless we take a good look within and find that core which will not be shaken. It can be ignored, it can be denied, it can remain untapped throughout our lives, but it is there, and it is what we need right now. Soul. Sacred Knowing. The essential wisdom for a peaceable world.
When the great plates slip and the earth shivers and the flaw is seen to lie in what you trusted most, look not to more solidity.... Trust more the tensile strands of love that bend and stretch to hold you in the web of life that's often torn but always healing. There's your strength. The shifting plates, the restive earth ... your precious life, they all proceed from love, the ground on which we walk together.
The seismic waves I speak of today are waves that shake any foundation of faith. At times like these and in most encounters with deeper learning, there is, first, a wilderness period. A time for regrouping and reorienting. A time when one feels lost and vulnerable. A time when nothing seems recognizable, no familiar horizon, no sure direction, suddenly among strangers, including yourself. Wilderness.
And sometimes we encounter unfamiliar dangers. Earthquakes can trigger landslides. That which was reliable can sometimes fall away. If you do not have the freedom to say what you feel or learn out loud, then you become less able to ask for directions, to seek guidance, not knowing who will embrace your whole confused, wandering self. Wilderness.
If this state of wilderness overwhelms one's spirit then a larger question emerges to further shake the foundations: Where is God, where is the Eternal One in all of this? What can I rely on, what can I believe in? How can I trust a love beyond my understanding when I witness such devastation?
The first step in this wilderness is to see where we are. Yes. This is new territory and yes, new territory can bring on wilderness. There's nothing permanent about where you are. You can find your way out of it.
The drive of Belligerence has been unleashed into the world, it is strong: it spreads and blinds like a formidable sandstorm ... besieging all spirits and enticing the soul.
Its rallying point is war, creating a force that is larger than any one of us –- and if we do not hold onto each other and our desire for peace, which some believe is the point of this war ... then that force will become our world, our consciousness, our way of being. "Be careful what you worship," warned Ralph Waldo Emerson, "for what you are worshiping, you are becoming."
It is time for all of us to face the reality that war, invasion, a sense of conquering and of occupying another's land is our reality. Destroying homes and lives for the sake of national interest is a living logic. Preemptive strike inspired by suspicion is a living fact amongst us. This is where we humans are. We have the capability to evolve beyond this drama, but we are unwilling as a species to honor it. Some say we were provoked, others that we had no choice, others that our greed cannot see beyond its own reasoning and others that vengeance rules the day.
The reasoning and the wondering and the arguing and the dying will continue. What we need -- and need now -- is a desire to see more clearly, to not be blinded by the storm of belligerence.
Belligerence is very compelling. It creates easy dualisms, good and evil, right and wrong, brave and cowardly, patriots and traitors. It compels us to ignore our ability to see beyond two dimensions and invites us to take sides and form enemies. Anyone of us can make matters worse by name calling, by wishing people dead, by building ourselves up by tearing others down, by rejecting nuance, by trashing democracy, by demonizing those who think differently, by thinking ourselves righteous and holy while pointing our fingers at our neighbors ... losing sight of the mirror they present to us ... losing sight that they are just like us, wandering in this violent storm. All this feeds belligerence. And it is forever hungry.
It is this logic that is urging us to summon Biblical regard for our endeavors. "Shock and Awe." Awe is attributed to that which is Holy and to forces of nature, yet we now pervert its meaning to having lots of bombs. I do not wish the Iraqi people to regard me with awe and neither should our government. If you sense something is wrong in this characterization do not push that disturbance away. Your soul is calling you. Something is very wrong with that presumption. "What you are worshiping ... you are becoming." And by the way, "Awe" is one of Islam's ninety nine names for God.
Belligerence provides us with simplistic justification, it gives us clear, narrow vision. It says "we are freeing the world from a tyrant who uses chemical weapons on his own people." It gives us justification to cast the first stone ...which is what a preemptive strike is. And what should one casting the first stone remember in this Biblical drama of shock and awe? That one should be free of sin.
Last year the Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that it conducted a series of tests in the 1960's and 70's using real chemical and biological weapons in the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve and Olaa Forest in Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone and a fourth unspecified jungle environment. About 5000 members of the US armed forces at sea and 2100 on land were involved. Health claims have been filed. We did this. You can look it up in the Pentagon papers.
The US Public Health Service conducted research on 399 African American men, willfully deceiving them about their syphilis so that, over a 40 year period, the ravages of the disease could be recorded. Fifty spouses and fifteen children were also reported to have contracted the disease from this biological tyranny. We did this. It was called the Tuskagee Experiment.
Merely two of many more examples. How qualified are we to cast the first stone? Belligerence can't be bothered beyond its own justification. This does not make me love freedom nor our nation less. This does not make me forgive Saddam Hussein's atrocities. However, I choose to honor this country by seeking the whole truth.
In order to see clearly through such a storm and find guidance in the wilderness, we need to first dissolve its power of the storm. We need to overcome our fear by finding and feeling that abiding truth that connects us all. Love abounds even when we do not see it. We need to believe in our deep and abiding wisdom to claim life's worth by cherishing the moment we are in since the next moment is uncertain. We do this with kindness, we do this knowing every compassionate act sends ripples of hope. We do this by praying for all people to find a way toward peace. We do this by truly seeing ourselves and each other.
This is larger than any one of us. May we be humble and strong in our resolve for better ways of being.
In the beginning there were people, alone and together. They lived under blue skies in the great wide world searching for food, then learning to fish, and hunt, and farm. But something was missing.
The people joined together. They formed families and friendships, and that was good. But something was missing.
They made campfires and learned to cook. At night, they stared into the dancing flames and made stories for each other. But something was missing.
They built altars and synagogues, temples, mosques, and churches. They began to worship. But something was still missing.
Finally one, or two, or three realized that they must go back to the beginning. They looked to the inside, both alone and together. And each, in their own time, and their own way, found an inner being, and named it.
It was not someone or something, but it was the source of their existence, and it had been with them, all the time.
Its name was: soul. [Printed with author's permission]
The most important lesson we are given every day, if we stay open to it, is that diversity is survival. When we strive for unison: wanting all to think and act the same way, wanting all to march to the same rhythm, wanting simple, dualistic answers to life's mysteries, then we miss the power of life within ... we ignore our soul. Life will go on whether or not we nourish our sacred potential. Life will have its shape from all its participants. If we do not participate life will find its own way.
At a time like this, when emotions are raw, when fear can readily envelope us and uncertainty damage our trust, we need to risk harmony. We need to bring our full selves to the table and hear how the differences manifest. We need to seek the dignity of such an endeavor and remember that harmony cannot exist without different voices.
This is a vulnerable time for us all. Believe in the soul within that awaits your understanding. Believe that it is not as much about our prayers being heard as it is about us hearing the wisdom that is ever available if we but stop and listen. Believe in your beauty, for when you are truly in touch with your unique genius of life's worth you will not want to harm another's.
I would like to end with a meditation:
Let us open our hearts, our minds ... our whole selves
to bring forth our sacred knowing of the way of things.
Let us call unto All Being that can guide us to better ways of living.
We have it in us to find a way
– out of fear and into love
– out of simple equations and into depth of understanding
– out of belligerence and into wisdom
Let us hold onto each other in all our confusion,
as we grieve,
as we hope ...
in our anger and our sadness
within our tension and our longing
one voice hearing another till a harmony rises amongst us
to witness to the world
honorable life.
So may it be.
Amen.
We bring our strength of being to this place
to find hope in the despair of war
to find courage in the midst of conflict
to find words and knowing that will soothe our confusions
to find worth in life even when so much is broken.
We come together self with self,
to hold onto the love we know in each other's faces
to hold onto the yearning for a healed world
to hold onto our prayers for those in danger
to hold onto our faith in this endeavor called a 'human being'
Let us honor the prayers amongst us for all who are directly involved in the war: the soldiers, the civilians, the loved ones who await news, the children, the wildlife, the reporters, the commanders. They are witnessing death and destruction in ways that many of us cannot imagine. Some are being asked to kill, which will change their lives forever. Some are being asked to sacrifice, and others forced, to choose about shortened supplies and uncertain loyalties. Trust may be deeply damaged –- hope hard to come by. Let us lift up our hearts and hold them dear.
Let us honor the prayers amongst us for the leaders of nations and of our own nation so that wisdom may hover near to enter their choices and compassion rule their every move.
Let us honor the prayers amongst us for those who know what war is and for those who have been there -- for they are remembering loss of loved ones, loss of innocence, loss of limbs, loss of peace of mind.
Let us honor the prayers amongst us for courage in this time of fear, for holding our tongues in this time of accusations, for sight in this time of demonizing, for self worth in this time of emotional turmoil.Copyright © 2003 Lisa G. Ward. All Rights Reserved.