A Practice of Peace (Tova Averbuch)

[Julie Smith]

I had the pleasure last week of attending a presentation from Father
Oleska, one of our state and national treasures.  Father Oleska is known
for his insight and wisdom around communication and cross-cultural
issues.  He is also a true believer in the power of story, and uses his
personal stories to engage and entertain at the same time that he
reveals important truths.  He is an inspiring and amazing man.

As he was talking, he reminded us that one of the core ideas the United
States was founded on is the principle of "E. Pluribus Unum," which is
Latin for "From Many, One."  That idea is so core to us that it's
printed on our money.  As I sit here this morning, I wonder if that's
another way to think about peace.  I wonder whether E. Pluribus Unum is
another way of expressing a desire for peace in the world, or perhaps is
even a useful definition of peace.  From many, one.

Father Oleska then talked about our social experiment with that lofty
goal.  When he looks at history, he finds five responses to the
difficulties we encounter when we try to make that shift from many to
one.  In this case, he's talking about the shift from many cultures to
one culture, from many peoples to one people.

He says our five responses so far have been:

1.  Kill those who are different (so those who are left are One, an
Unum)
2.  Remove those who are different (again, those remaining are an Unum)
3.  Assimilate those who are different (the melting pot)
4.  Accept all our differences (pluralism) (unfortunately, he joked,
with this response we got "from many, many")
5.  ??? Here's where we are now.  We don't know what it is yet.

He didn't spend much time trying to define where it is we are now, or
where it is he thought we should go. He wasn't a bit theoretical or
political or even philosophic or religious.  He just kept telling us
stories.  He made us laugh and cry and along the way he helped us
understand his story and the stories of those he has known.

When I think about the lessons I learned from Father Oleska, I think his
message was to get to know each other, one person at a time.  Spend time
with each other, tell your stories, begin to reach a deeper
understanding of each other.  And then it occurs to me that perhaps we
are being challenged to move beyond that old adage "Know Thyself" to
"Know Each Other."

And now, back on that spiral of expanding consciousness, I think perhaps
for me some of the markers on the path look like this:

Know thyself (as a separate self)
Know each other
Know thyself (as One)

And..... perhaps the "Know each other" stage naturally raises issues of
chaos and complexity, because it IS chaotic and complex..... and the
third stage of "Know thyself (as One)" is the simplicity that comes
after complexity.

Or how about this:

Know thyself [From many separate selves]
Know each other [,]
Know thyself [One Self]

And the [,] is where we are now..... that pause in time signified by the
comma..... and Open Space is one of the ways we do the work that is
needed in the pause, the getting to know each other that is necessary to
make the transition between the other two.

For me, that peace we're reaching for resides in the integration of
these three stages.  From many, one.

This has been quite a ramble.... thanks to you who made it all the way
to the end.

Julie

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