Removing the Shrapnel....

This morning, in the confusing haze following the horrific Boston Marathon bombings, I listened as physicians entreated with treating the injured survivors updated the media as to the state of their patients. One doctor, after detailing the gore and violent damage the bombs had done to many of the legs of the victims, explained that virtually all of those caught in the blast's path had shrapnel bits, (ball bearing, nails, etc.)imbedded in them. Were these pieces of metal not to be removed, they might certainly lead to dangerous infections which would then fester and grow and perhaps cause fatal results. 

 It occurred to me that all of us are left with embedded bits of emotional shrapnel from the many terrorist acts that we have witnessed over the last couple of decades and, until we remove them, run the risk of a deadly infection - individually and collectively. However, unlike the doctors, we're not sure which scalpel to use to remove the offending pieces or which stitch technique will best heal the wound. How does a damaged country heal after so many bombs have shattered our world, such deep hatred spewed in our direction, and so much fear cloaking us all? If terror does anything, it's fear of the unknown that is the deadliest shrapnel piece. Remove that and the healing begins. 

 It is human nature and quite understandable to seek vengeance after such a cowardly and horrendous act as the bombing at the finish of the Boston Marathon. But, that vengeance - if turned to war - will breed nothing but more of the same. I prefer Abraham Lincoln's thoughts on destroying an enemy when he said "The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend." Peace will only be realized by building bonds of trust between people at the very deepest level. Fear will be replaced by respect, integrity, and ultimately - love. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a career soldier made an incredibly illuminating observation. "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." 

So,  as we seek to recover from this latest attack on our shores, let us not stoop to the level of the uneducated and brutality of the ignorant who authored this act of violence. Rather, lets heed the wise advise of the famed Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh who said, "The essence of nonviolence is love. Out of love and the willingness to act selflessly, strategies, tactics, and techniques for a nonviolent struggle arise naturally. Nonviolence is not a dogma; it is a process." Only then can we help Founding Father President George Washington achieve his wish "to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth." 

 Remove the shrapnel and let the healing begin.