Watching the 10 pm news last night, story after story was about violence, shootings, stabbings, car accidents, war and more. The fast paced news of violence reminded me how ‘speed kills,’ not only when driving a car but when driving through life. It reminded me how I needed to ‘slow down to live.’ So it was only right and just that this morning, Sunday morning, I spend some time with my friend, Ken Butigan, a coordinator for Pace e Bene at a training session in nonviolence at Marquette University, sponsored by the Marquette Center for Peacemaking. I have been at workshops, talks and retreats with Ken and the staff of Pace e Bene before but it is always good to hear it one more time, what “creative nonviolence” is all about. Ken was the person who some years ago, when I was searching for a way to be effective in the peace movement, told me to pick one specific issue and do my best to work on it. The issue I picked was getting Marquette University to be Faithful to the Gospel and No Longer Host Departments of the Military. In our resistance struggle at Marquette, which is now 40 years old there have been many slow moments when all interest from students and faculty seems to die, but they have been followed by moments of new life and growth. The many seeds of resistance planted by many over the 40 years have died but once again some have taken root and risen.
It is time to refurbish the GP home model box in the sunroom, so I can once again plant seeds for growth of salad greens this winter. I am now putting homemade soil of compost and castings in the box and, once it’s filled, will plant seeds for fall, winter and early spring growth of salad greens. Each year this effort, like doing nonviolence, takes a leap of faith that it will work. Each year it works but some years better than others. But like peacemaking we keep doing it, knowing that “Growing Renewable Affordable Food” (G.R.A.F.) takes consistent effort, just like peacemaking, always learning from the past, taking a firm position in the present and hoping for the best in the future. Just like I grow my own soil I need to grow my own nonviolence.
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