| March/April
2000 by
Gene Knudsen Hoffman When I was asked "Do you have hope for humanity?" my mind said "No!" My heart said, "Wait a minute. Listen to me." I did. This is what I heard. I think war and violence are human problems. That's why I'm hopeful. I've seen that humanity can change, and it has–not by force, not by threat, not even by cajoling, but by creating a safe place to be heard, to hear, and to choose what is best. We all have secrets and, it seems to me, secrets are part of our undoing. We hid how cruel the first settlers were to the Indians. They came here following what I believe were skewed truths about freedom. They believed they had "discovered" this land and had a right to it. They believed they had eminent domain over the land, the people, the animals, and the vegetation they found here, and had a right to use them as they chose. Many of us don't believe that anymore, and are seeking ways to heal this breach. Many of us felt it was right to own slaves, to keep people in bondage for our use and pleasure, because (we believed) these weren't "real people"–"They didn't have souls." Today many of us believe that was a tragic lie and are seeking ways to heal this breach, too. We've long believed it was right to declare war against people and topple governments, if not civilizations, when they disagreed with us. We thought we had a God-given right to fight for our self-interest. We thought it was right to atom-bomb Hiroshima. Many of us now feel this is wrong, if not disastrous, thinking. Many of us now believe we should continuously be in dialogue, negotiation, or just plain conversation with those with whom we have ruptured relationships. We have believed the mountains and seas, animals and trees were "ours" because we found or bought them. Now many of us realize they are the heritage of all– that they are our care-givers, our friends, and that we must cherish them. We have believed that we have the right to manipulate the earth and its gifts into weapons, to genetically change fruits and vegetables, to clone sheep, clone people, inject our servicemen and women with anthrax vaccine, create deadly pesticides, and use them. More and more of us believe that way lies disaster. Many of us have discovered there are limits to what is allowed us. There is sacred space we may not enter, there are sacred laws we may not disobey without jeopardy to ourselves and all we love. We have been given freedom, not license, and if we do not honor our limits, we enter "chaos and old night." When we fight wars, we are in that chaos. When we harm the earth, we enter it. When we do not do our work to heal our wounds, which are a cause of hate, anger, wars, and violence, that chaos is in us. I believe there is hope for humanity because many of us are relinquishing our secrets and our ignorance. We are moving into new dimensions where love, understanding, listening and hearing rule. We are learning that we cannot make peace if we do not listen to our enemies. Indeed, as Longfellow wrote: "If we knew the secret history of our enemies, we would find sorrow and suffering enough to dispel all hostility"–and we would be on the path of compassion for all creatures, great and small, including ourselves.
|
