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Touchstones-Journal-December-2018-Peace Touchstones a monthly journal of Unitarian Universalism December 2018 Peace Wisdom Story An old Grandfather said to his grand- A Drop of Honey son, who came to him with anger at a adapted from a Thai folk tale friend who had done him an injustice, Once upon a time, a queen sat on her “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, balcony eating rice have felt a great hate for those that have cakes and honey taken so much, with no sorrow for what with her chief ad- they do. But hate wears you down, and visor. As they ate, does not hurt your enemy. It is like tak- they gazed down While on tour in New Zealand in the ing poison and wishing your enemy at the busy street 1970s singer/songwriter Tom Paxton would die. I have struggled with these below. The queen wrote the lyrics to the song Peace Will feelings many times.” pointed to some- Come. He was in the back seat of a taxi- He continued, “It is as if there are thing in the distance. As she did, a drop cab in route to his hotel when the lyrics two wolves inside me. One is good and of honey from her rice cake landed on started to come to him. By the time he does no harm. He lives in harmony with the balcony railing. arrived at the hotel the lyrics were all around him, and does not take “My Queen, you have spilled a drop done. He rushed to his room and offense when no offense was intended. of honey,” observed the advisor. “Shall I worked on the tune. His muse was in He will only fight when it is right to do call a servant to come and clean it up?” overdrive because the tune came as so, and in the right way. But the other But the queen laughed, “A little drop quickly as the lyrics. The song begins, wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest of honey is not MY problem. Someone “Peace/ Peace will/ Peace will come.” thing will set him into a fit of temper. will clean it later.” While peace is not inevitable, Paxton’s He fights everyone, all the time, for no They went on eating and talking as lyrics suggest that peace is imminently reason. He cannot think because his the drop of honey warmed in the sun possible. His optimism was grounded anger and hate are so great. It is help- and began to slowly drip down the side in his own choice as he also wrote, “and less anger, for his anger will change of railing until it landed in the street be- let it begin with me.” nothing. Sometimes, it is hard to live low with a plop! There is a Cherokee legend that illus- with these two wolves inside me, for “Your Highness,” the advisor said, trates the way in which peace can begin. (Continued on page 6) “that drop of honey has now fallen into the street, where it is attracting flies. Peace & Letting Your Life Speak Shouldn’t we call a servant to come and Parker Palmer writes, “The soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, savvy, self- clean it up?” sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing But again the queen yawned lazily we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to and replied, “A little drop of honey and a come out.” The question becomes, “How do you tame the soul?” A kind of taming few flies are not MY problem. Someone was the artistic vocation of 19th century artist Edward Hicks who was obsessed will deal with it later.” with the idea of a Peaceable Kingdom, that place where the lion would lay down Soon a lizard darted out from under- with the lamb. Human aggression is real. It has both saved us, and harmed us and neath the palace wall to catch the flies on others terribly. Our task is, as Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote, to “be peace.” This does not her tongue. Then a cat sprang from the happen by accident or by wishing for it to be so. It is the result of ongoing spiritual baker’s shop and began to bat the lizard practice. As Thích Nhất Hạnh said, it happens by making peace every step. back and forth like a toy. Just then a dog charged out from the butcher’s shop and Touchstones is committed to exploring liberal theology. This journal is supported by began to bite the cat on the neck. subscriptions from Unitarian Universalist congregations. For daily meditations, pho- tos, and more visit/like Touchstones at https://www.facebook.com/Touchpossibility/ (Continued on page 2) Let Your Life Speak It is Your Problem Creating Peace The Distant Shore (Continued from page 1) Wisdom Story Seeking Peace Unity Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland E.B. White “Your Highness,” the advisor im- There has been a historic focus on In the spring of 1960, E.B. White wrote plored, “now the flies have attracted a peace among Universalists and an essay entitled, Unity, in which he ex- lizard, which attracted a cat, which is Unitarians. The following are notable. plored peace and disarmament in the now being attacked by a dog. Shouldn’t In 1790, Universalists declared, context of the Cold War. He knew that we call someone to stop the fight?” “Although a defensive war may be con- peace was not just a matter of this or that But the Queen only stretched, and sidered lawful, yet we believe there is a treaty, but of a unity that the world has shook her head at her advisor, “Won’t time coming, when the light and uni- never known. Following are excerpts you relax. A silly animal fight is not MY versal love of the gospel shall put an from that essay. Maria Popova included problem. Someone will surely see to it.” end to all wars.” them in a piece that she wrote about In fact, the baker did see to it. She saw In response to the War of 1812, Uni- White and his essay. the dog attacking her cat and ran out tarian Minister Noah Worcester found- “Most people think of peace as a state with her rolling pin and began to hit the ed the Massachusetts Peace Society. of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing dog. And then the butcher heard his dog One of the organizing meetings was Much Happening. Yet if peace is to over- howling and ran out with his broom and held at the invitation of the Rev. take us and make us the gift of serenity began to hit the cat. Soon the butcher and William Ellery Channing in his study at and well-being, it will have to be the baker were hitting each other. Then the the Federal Street parsonage. state of Something Good Happening. neighboring shopkeepers began to take In 1816, Channing in his Sermon on What is this good thing? I think it is the sides, joining in the fight. Then some sol- War noted that “the principles of justice evolution of community, community diers came along, but some knew the receive a shock which many years of slowly and surely invested with the butcher and some knew the baker. So the peace are not able to repair.” robes of government by the consent of soldiers, too, took sides and the battle In 1846, Unitarian minister Adin the governed. grew. It grew and grew until a great Ballou published Christian Non- … battle waged in the streets. People were Resistance, which would influence Tol- “We cannot conceivably achieve a throwing rocks through windows and stoy and Gandhi. peaceful life merely by relaxing the ten- tipping over vendor carts. Someone Universalist minister Clarence sions of sovereign nations; there is an picked up a torch from the wall and Russell Skinner and Unitarian minister unending supply of them. We may gain hurled it through a window. Fire raged, John Haynes Holmes were reviled for a breather by relaxing a tension here and and eventually it spread to the palace. being pacifists. Of 15 Unitarian minis- there, but I think it a fallacy that a mere The next thing they knew, the queen ters who were pacifists during World easement, or diplomacy triumphant, can and her advisor were being escorted War I, only six were still serving their ever be the whole base for peace. You down a ladder from the balcony into the church when the War ended. could relax every last tension tonight and street below because the palace itself was During World War II, the American wake tomorrow morning with all the engulfed in flames. Unitarian Association supported con- makings of war, all the familiar promise Later that day when the fire had died scientious objectors. of trouble. out, the queen and her advisor surveyed Our 1961 principles called us, “To “Unfortunately, disarmament doesn’t the ruins of their land. Suddenly, the implement our vision of one world by have much to do with peace…. On this queen stopped in the street underneath striving for a world community found- naked earth, a nation that approaches where her balcony had been. She reached ed on ideals of brotherhood, justice and disarmament as though it were a human- down and touched something in a small peace….” The 1985 revision affirmed: itarian ideal is either suffering from delu- puddle on the ground. “It’s honey,” she “The goal of world community with sions or planning a deception.
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