As long as mankind resorts to violence, he has not learned his true path. The human consciousness must evolve beyond violence to solve its problems. If not, we are admitting to ourselves that we are nothing more than a stone’s throw away from the caveman. On a planet that has more Ph.D.’s then ever, when diplomacy fails, the only solution we see is war. In war, there are no winners, only motherless children, families without food, rivers of blood. Hate rules over the ruins of Love. In the aftermath all that is left are wounds that take years to close, and populations that return to prayer to try to understand “why?” We live in a world where many people of different faiths on different continents weekly visit churches, temples and mosques to give up praises and thanks to God, each group choosing a different path to that one God. No different than children in dispute in a schoolyard, we often see the ultimate answer as violence. Surely, we can find a better way to end our differences than that. Yes there is a price for peace, but what is that price, and for what kind of peace?

The same thing occurs in the home. A husband and wife have a disagreement and eventually it deteriorates into violence while children watch, and neighbors hear. At some point hopefully the two sit down with a counselor to discuss their problems, and they discover that the violence resulted from lack of self-love, fear, and anger. A relationship where communication broke down. War not only takes place on the battlefield….but also at home.

Could it be that there is a similarity between the disputes that occur between nations and those that occur in personal relationships? Should we tell a couple who are having problems that if they don’t work it out, kill? The world is made up of human relationships on a planet that is getting smaller. Is there still room left for violence? If violence begets violence, then who wins?

In Prayer,

Jennifer Avalon
© 1998 Jennifer Avalon