{"id":241,"date":"2009-11-11T13:59:10","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T13:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/11\/some-thoughts-on-peace-on-veterans-day.html"},"modified":"2009-11-11T13:59:10","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T13:59:10","slug":"some-thoughts-on-peace-on-veterans-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/11\/some-thoughts-on-peace-on-veterans-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts on peace on Veterans Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2324043206_72a3d35cbc_m.jpg\"<\/span>My heart goes out to those who are away from home today defending our country, and to their families, and most of all to families who have lost loved ones in the current war and past wars. As I ponder the complexities — the bravery of fighting versus the bravery of pacifism, the necessity of fighting versus the necessity of, some day, turning swords into plowshares — I feel moved to share this story from my past, taken from my book, Living a Charmed Life<\/a> <\/i>(c) 2009, HarperOne Publishers. Photo credit: Cards by Paula.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


“Peacemaking is not for the selfish or
\nfaint-hearted. <\/i><\/span>I learned this from a
\ncouple of fellows I’d never met until the night of my senior prom. I’ll call them Josh and Randy
\nbec(c)<\/span>ause in all honesty, I don’t remember their names. No one had invited me to
\nthe big dance, but I said I wouldn’t have gone anyway. This was the Vietmam era, and I wanted to be part
\nof an all-night peace vigil being held in a local park. (That was a lie, of
\ncourse, contrived to save face and convince myself that I wasn’t miserable
\nabout not having a boyfriend, not being “chosen.”)  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The protesters in the
\npark thinned out as the night wore on until there were only half a dozen of
\nus—Josh and Randy, three other women, and me—with blankets and sleeping
\nbags, set to stay for the duration. Just after midnight a couple of men
\napproached our little assembly, and I assumed they intended to join the vigil.
\nWhen the two guys in our group arose to make space for them, the strangers started
\nshouting insults and hurling punches. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Since I’d never seen a
\nfight before, other than in the movies or on TV, I wasn’t sure what to expect,
\nbut what I saw would have astonished even a habituated barroom brawler. Josh, a
\nbirthright Quaker with nonresistance in his bones, and Randy, a Vietnam vet
\nwho’d said, “I did my duty over there, and now I’m doing it here,” stood
\nstoically, arms at their sides. In about a minute, the attackers realized that
\nno one was fighting back. They were so spooked by this lack of response that
\nthey hightailed it out of there as if they’d seen a ghost—two ghosts. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Randy was bleeding
\nenough that one of the women took him to the ER, while Josh nursed his swelling
\njaw with a can of 7up from the ice chest. I stayed awake to process in my mind what had
\nhappened. I didn’t know in an absolute sense where I stood philosophically on
\nquestions like war and peace, or even self-defense. All these years later, I’m
\nstill not sure. In fact, compared to the myriad gray areas I see now, my world
\nat seventeen was as black and white as a pair of spectator pumps. It is unclear to me to this day if turning the other cheek is always the right response, but on
\nthat late spring night so long ago I was able to witness its power firsthand.
\nThat made up for missing the prom many times over.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I never saw Josh or
\nRandy after that, but when the word ‘heroic’<\/i><\/span> comes to mind, I see them, and the
\nimages of heroes I’ve come to know since, many of whom are wearing military
\nuniforms. All of these admirable men and women tapped into a strength they found inside to do what they
\nbelieved was right. <\/span>When you tap into your own
\ngentle strength, you become a hero. Some people will admire you, some may think
\nyou’ve lost it, and most won’t care either way. That’s fine. When one drop of
\nwater is followed by another and another for a long enough time, boulders are
\nworn away. You can choose to be like water. Or like the
\nperson you hoped you’d become when you’d been on earth so briefly you could
\nalmost remember heaven.”<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I ponder the complexities — the bravery of fighting versus the bravery of pacifism, the necessity of fighting versus the necessity of, some day, turning swords into plowshares — I feel moved to share this story from my past….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-adventuring"],"yoast_head":"\nSome thoughts on peace on Veterans Day - Your Charmed Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/11\/some-thoughts-on-peace-on-veterans-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some thoughts on peace on Veterans Day - 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