Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye will make the world go blind.”
A single thought delivered by a man who faced amplitudes of personal challenges yet it never halted a willingness to reach outward toward a community seeking leadership. To wade through the waters of each unpredictable storm gifted his constant compassion with enough impact to push such profound visions beyond a thousand years.
To step from beneath the barriers that which kept him from the wraps of being normal, sharing, “An eye for an eye will make the world go blind,” seemed almost as if he was moving against a system already ancient in years thick.
Like the multicolored strings unevenly sewn into the canvas of a great pair of tennis shoes, so is the origin of the statement: An eye for an eye. From childhood to ageless Baby Boomer…parents, school principals, religious leaders and friends crowned our kingdoms with permission to take what’s been taken…an eye for an eye.
That’s like the military saying, “We are at war in the name of creating peace.” War is war and through each unheard chapter the rivers that bleed put innocent bystanders face to face in worlds of fear that may or may not feed a need to locate any method of survival.
Buddhist Monk Thick Nhat Hahn firmly remembers his darkest test, assumed beautiful was the morning, quickly becoming interrupted by two French soldiers physically and verbally starving. Being from separate longitude and latitudes, language presented a brick wall forcing one of the soldiers to come across severely unrested, uncaring and not in favor of holding open a peace filled palm. He had a job to do…locate food. Being spiritually connected to the small village now invaded Thick Nhat Hahn vowed to the loyalties that which made up his commitment…feed the hurting women and children.
An eye for an eye might have proven to be what most would agree is the answer in situations where the mountains are so tall the sky leaps from the painting.
Let’s modernize the situation…six paragraphs deep into the congressional hearings, a wall of wonder breathes like a fire ant carrying a boxed lunch stacked with questions so thick it would take six straws to suck the ice cream through…the financial industry has been dragged into what an outsider might recognize as an eye for an eye. Billions of dollars in bonuses are being handed out to masters of a craft that 1/100th of us had no clue existed. Our longitude and latitudes aren’t in sync, which has created unrest, uncaring decisions and not too many tax payers are willing to hold open a peace filled palm.
Staring deeply into the soul of the impatient French soldier whose demands if met would leave Thick Nhat Hanh’s community in a state of starvation, the Monk sought a method of peace. If he had not walked toward the single bucket of rice, there might have been loud shots leading toward horrible bloodshed…by reaching for the rice, starvation being the end result of the situation presented…it guaranteed his community a moment of peace, purchasing enough time to seek other means of nourishment.
Because Gandhi’s quote had been shared with him during the pages so often called the teen years, the Buddhist Monk delivered the rice to the foul mouthed soldier never putting energy in the idea of an eye for an eye.
Once away from the community, Thick Nhat Hahn learned his spiritual leaders were better prepared in the way of bringing to life another parental message often shared but never exercised, “Save it for a rainy day.” Those who taught him the way of peaceful walks had buried many days of rice below the surface of the darkest soil.
The man tested that day openly admits he thinks of the French soldier constantly, often wondering if he made it back home to his family…we are trained as humans to do what we are told, even it means leaving the comfort of family in the name of locating peace by means of war.
Such unrehearsed gatherings create uneducated circumstances that puts innocence on the line…although you’ve had nothing to do with the decisions leading to this world financial crisis, by stepping into the conversation through news media outlets seeking nothing more than higher ratings does nothing more than generate several canals of negative vibrations that which have been or will be tested.
If it’s an eye you seek…shouldn’t you also be asked what color should it be?
Financial crisis, national unemployment rate, two wars in foreign countries…the reality of life doesn’t gift your canvas with those colors to paint…it’s not selfish to admit your cares and concerns are closer, deeper and affect not necessarily an entire community but your family, neighborhood or simply your marriage or relationship with a teen who’s taken it upon themselves to ride the wild wave in the way of attempting to make a name of their own compliments of the hottest Hip Hop or Country song on the radio.
When my stepdaughter dropped out of high school, the easy way to express the uneasiness suddenly tossed into my soul would’ve been to climb on that bus everyday and sit in a long drawn out boring class just to get a black robe and a diploma half of us couldn’t find if we were sent looking for it. Rather than using an eye for an eye…the relationship didn’t go blind…I listened everyday. We built everyday. She graduated with two degrees from UCLA.
We are not the Brady Bunch and life will not go back to normal like it seems to do every week on My Name is Earl. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin really don’t run a television network and who really cares if American Idol has been accused of knowing who the top four contenders will be weeks before we get to vote. How many times have you skipped on paying out the right amount of rent in Monopoly or grabbed an extra ten when you were in the bank? When playing Chess or Checkers have you ever suddenly shaken the board and forced the game to start over?
An eye for an eye? The only thing you’re supposed to do with eyes is stare into the windows of a soul.
Steal my art…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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