"Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice." -President Barack Obama
I know I’m a week behind on my Advent series, but I’ll try to catch up. Last week, peace was the theme of the candle. The angels that came to announce the birth of Christ proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth…” Advent is the season of expectation, and in this case, we’re told to expect peace. Jesus, the “prince of peace.”
It’s an interesting time to study the subject. My president just received the Nobel Peace Prize while sending more troops to fight a second war. Strange on a lot of levels. Here, they don’t understand when we talk about “deploying troops,” or what it means to fight in a world war, but they know conflict within their own borders. Two years ago this month, some of the worst violence in the country’s history broke out over a disputed election. The wounds are still very fresh. Last weekend, I went to a “Peace Concert” in Nairobi’s central park, which was an effort to bring people together in reverence and remembrance of the events that took place. It was pretty relaxed until… it wasn’t anymore. Some minor mob mentality broke out at the end. Bottles were smashed, the security started hampering down, half the crowd of mostly youth started running away towards the city. Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, except with the overtones of the concert’s aim, it gave me an eerie feeling about how fragile the state of things are here.
We recently had a small informal devotion and were sharing different places where we’ve felt or seen peace here. With what had happened that weekend, I was hard pressed to find something. Tribalism, as defined by a local op-ed contributor as,"a conscious choice to discriminate against others who speak a language other than your own or who do not share in your particular culture…" is still thriving here. Makes one worried for their 2012 elections and whether or not their forming constitution will indeed pass and unify its people. Overall, I felt a lot of tension, not peace.
It was ironic, then, that I felt most at peace this week coming face to face with the issue. There was a photo exhibit downtown displaying some of the worst of the violence for all to see. The pictures were expertly composed, but horrifying, and yet incredibly moving in the way that makes you want to change. I was also moved by what the NGO surrounding the photos was trying to do. Representatives were preaching to the onlookers about the need to expose the wounds in order to heal them. Before we can look forward, they urged, we must first of all LOOK . Only then, within an honest confrontation of the conflict, can we reach inside for the solutions that won’t let the future be the same. So, I’m in the looking stage right now, and that’s a good and healthy place to be, I think. At least I’m in some good company.
For now, it is the internal peace that I feel most prevalently in Kenya. When you ask, “How are you?” (Habari yako?) in Kiswahili, a common response is “Salama,” or, “I have peace.” It doesn’t answer the question necessarily, but is indicative of something, I believe, a little deeper that doesn’t sway with the comings and goings of the day’s emotion. I see it here, the inward peace manifested outwardly… in the way a child always carries the mother’s things for her, in how a mother wraps a child lovingly in a kitanga cloth to keep her close, in how there is always fresh milk on hand in case visitors come for tea time, and in how there is always time: for prayer, for a good conversation, and for family in its many extensions. Let us, "prepare the way..." inward, and then onward. But let us not move forward too quickly, for it is this internal peace communicated that is truly transformative.
"If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
PS: on an unrelated health update, I think they finally figured out what I had and am definitely on the road to recovery. thanks for the prayers.
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