“Words are just words and without heart they have no meaning.”
- Chinese Proverb
Tonight we had a Breaking the Silence gathering to discuss our next Drone action next Saturday at the Brady Street Festival. All was smooth but then we went on to discuss our strategy for our message Marquette, Close the School of Army on campus. our discussion went down the path from signing petitions to the statement to be a true Christian is to be a pacifist. I felt I was somewhere in between calling for nonviolent action, not just petitioning but not setting up absolute positions. We all exchanged words in creative conflict yet not always agreeing. Being in the middle is something new for me.
In this day and age of partisan politics, people taking extreme position and not allowing compromise seems to be the norm. Being in the balanced middle seems to be taking a relative position, not taking a stand, being wishy washy. Perhaps it is when words are just words and without heart. But I believe being in the radical balanced middle and speaking from the heart is meaningful.
I have been thinking a lot recently of what nonviolence really means. Tonight I think it means speaking and acting from the heart even when the message might bring insults, or even worst, being ignored, yet not reacting but keeping on the message. A petition for me is just asking in a nice way. Making absolute statements leaves no room for change. Speaking and acting from the heart is the way of nonviolence. The heart is inside and in the middle of our body just like nonviolence is in us and in the middle of our life.
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