we've pretty much been hanging around the house for the past few days. baby and hubs have been sick, and the weather got the email and helped effectively carve out delicious home hibernation time. after the baby went to bed one night we watched most of Ghandi, and at the point where Indian men, women, and children were being massacred by English soldiers for the crime of publicly meeting together I lost my mind and started bawling. I cannot bear cruelty. I cannot bear being reminded that babies lose their parents every day, that there are those who would kill the most defenseless among us, that people treat people (and other living things) so thoughtlessly and cheaply. I look at my baby and wonder about her life, and wonder about my own. I want to stop everything and put up a forcefield to repel the evil.
I appreciated very much Ghandi's philosophy, and am still a little challenged to wrap my mind around it. to practice 'non-cooperation', a non-violent civil disobedience, to bring change about... there's nothing passive, wimpy, or safe about that. I mentioned to M last night that, to me, when the people began to really act out their convictions in a civil way, it only served to magnify the sheer brutality of the opposition, the lengths people and powers will go to maintain control whether there's actual cause for violence or not. while performing a cursory search, I found that there are many opposing opinions worldwide about both Ghandi and the philosophy he espoused. I'm glad of the movie, though, for challenging me. What would I do or condone to contain those I want to repress? Is violence part of our natural, God-given makeup to be allowed healthy exercise, or maybe just exercise in arenas we deem 'safe' or 'justified', like video games/sports/politics/religion/the dude who cut me off today? Do we claim an acceptable place for holy violence citing Christ in the temple, or call spiritual maturity the ability to suppress our tendencies to lash out and pursue the path of peace in His name?
and on an entirely different note:
-my
2 comments:
Dude, for a "real quick" post you have brought up some deep, deep questions. Important ones, though, for sure. I think your point about non-violence not being the easy or wimpy way out is very important. I think that part gets misunderstood. To not fight back is the ultimate act of courage to me, and in fact the same decision my Savior made.
what a lot to think about!
regarding that body image thing: I've known for a very long time that my mother's unhealthy body image--she says she needs to lose weight when she does not; she eats candy and skips healthier foods to maintain her weight;she equates feeding people with loving them--really messed me up and caused me to develop some very bad habits which I struggle to overcome.
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