I stumbled across the above this morning while browsing social media and thought it best to track the attribution before sharing.
As it turns out, the author is William L. Wallace, a retired New Zealand Methodist minister, and it's part of a Remembrance Day litany written several years ago. Armistice Day has evolved into Veterans Day in the United States; into Remembrance Day in Commonwealth and other nations, including New Zealand.
His dozen points seem worth considering in many contexts, including our own multi-crisis context in the United States:
+++
If we are unwilling to learn from history, we commit ourselves to reliving the mistakes of our ancestors.
The peace of the land, the peace of the people and the peace of the heart are inextricably intertwined.
We are the shapers of our own apocalypse.
What is accomplished by force does not last. What is accomplished by love is eternal.
Those who seek to enter the depths of spirituality (the Way of God) by use of physical, intellectual or emotional force may succeed in raping the superficial but will never gain access to the divine mysteries.
We cannot embrace the mystery, we can only allow ourselves to be embraced by it.
We cannot wait until we have true peace of mind before we start working for peace, nor can we wait until the world is at peace before seeking peace of mind.
It is better not to remember war if all it does is to reinforce ancient antagonisms.
To remember war without offering forgiveness to former enemies is only to reinforce soul destroying hatred.
Peace is not just the absence of war – it is being at home with the most shadowy parts of our personality, so that we know where our anger is coming from and how to transform it.
This world will not be a safe place for all human beings until power is in the hands of people who are ecure enough to be able to laugh at themselves and the institutions which they control.
The first step out of violence is to stop viewing oneself, or any part of oneself as an unlovable enemy.
No comments:
Post a Comment