Hatred and helping others
Sometimes it's just hard to keep on helping others when for that moment you just hate them so much.
This is, I think, no big revelation. It is also what lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, to name just one. Over the past several days I have heard more than I care to hear about Jews, Arabs, Americans and how the world should continue to deal with this problem. People face problems everyday - husbands and wives struggle to work out their small hatreds and countries in non-Middle East regions struggle to be noticed by the world and even their own people. Why should this problem take precedence over any other, I wonder? What is the justification for so much energy being applied to solving a problem that no one really wants to solve?
The other day I read an article that focused on the Palestian peoples' point of view - not the Palestinian Authority, or Fatah, or Hamas, but the people's point of view. One woman said that for a lot of them, the silence of the West is worse than the pain of the Israeli bullets. I'm sorry, normally I have sources and I will try to find this source, but for now I just need you to believe that this article exists out there somewhere. I need you to see these peoples' pain and to feel it. Their greatest pain comes not from hunger, from being shot or from having their homes bulldozed but from being ignored. To be ignored, to be made to feel as though your feelings don't matter and that despite your feelings being ignored you should care about the feelings of others, this is a great pain. Perhaps this is the greatest pain that anyone can know. This is what is at the heart of despair. This is what we all share and this is why someone can be so rich yet so sad and so lonely. Just the knowledge that someone cares can mean so much. Just a kind word of support can help alleviate the pain of the situation and prepare that person to face so much more than he or she was originally prepared to handle. And to offer that support, to offer those kind words, is one of the bravest things that anyone can do. It is very brave to stand up in the faced of your own deep hatred and do the right thing no matter how much you want to strangle the other side with your bare hands.
The thing is, if you're the only one doing it, the burden becomes increasingly difficult to carry. Eventually, you will collapse under the strain of supporting everyone else while no one is supporting you. Dealing with other people's stresses is often easier than dealing with your own stress but not if no one is helping you to support yours.
I think that the best thing we can do is not to wait for others to express our views for us, but to speak out, even in the smallest ways, in favour of those who need us. It's free but it takes more courage than it does to write a cheque.
This is, I think, no big revelation. It is also what lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, to name just one. Over the past several days I have heard more than I care to hear about Jews, Arabs, Americans and how the world should continue to deal with this problem. People face problems everyday - husbands and wives struggle to work out their small hatreds and countries in non-Middle East regions struggle to be noticed by the world and even their own people. Why should this problem take precedence over any other, I wonder? What is the justification for so much energy being applied to solving a problem that no one really wants to solve?
The other day I read an article that focused on the Palestian peoples' point of view - not the Palestinian Authority, or Fatah, or Hamas, but the people's point of view. One woman said that for a lot of them, the silence of the West is worse than the pain of the Israeli bullets. I'm sorry, normally I have sources and I will try to find this source, but for now I just need you to believe that this article exists out there somewhere. I need you to see these peoples' pain and to feel it. Their greatest pain comes not from hunger, from being shot or from having their homes bulldozed but from being ignored. To be ignored, to be made to feel as though your feelings don't matter and that despite your feelings being ignored you should care about the feelings of others, this is a great pain. Perhaps this is the greatest pain that anyone can know. This is what is at the heart of despair. This is what we all share and this is why someone can be so rich yet so sad and so lonely. Just the knowledge that someone cares can mean so much. Just a kind word of support can help alleviate the pain of the situation and prepare that person to face so much more than he or she was originally prepared to handle. And to offer that support, to offer those kind words, is one of the bravest things that anyone can do. It is very brave to stand up in the faced of your own deep hatred and do the right thing no matter how much you want to strangle the other side with your bare hands.
The thing is, if you're the only one doing it, the burden becomes increasingly difficult to carry. Eventually, you will collapse under the strain of supporting everyone else while no one is supporting you. Dealing with other people's stresses is often easier than dealing with your own stress but not if no one is helping you to support yours.
I think that the best thing we can do is not to wait for others to express our views for us, but to speak out, even in the smallest ways, in favour of those who need us. It's free but it takes more courage than it does to write a cheque.
posted by Laurelle St. Laurent at 7:20 p.m.
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