Who against peace in Iraq ?

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Permalink Reply by John Inman on October 18, 2009 at 6:03am

Abdulsattar, yes peace is the goal of many of us who do cafe work I believe. Conversation is healing and drawing the system into conversation I believe is the only way to generate healing and to create a container where peace can grow.

The difficult part of bringing the whole system into the conversation is that all parties in the system must want to be in the conversation and willing to respect the rights of the other participants in the conversation. I see conversation as an outcome. We cannot demand conversation. We cannot just say start the conversation. Conversation is a heartfelt dance with each participant engaged in a give and take that emerges much like a dance.

So much is said about engagement these days and yet, I have not found an author who seems to get the foundation of engagement. If I do not care about you, I will not be the least bit curious about you. If I am not curious about you, I do not treat you with respect. And if I am not curious about you, I will not take the effort to engage with you. And if I will not engage with you, we cannot have a conversation. So we need to first care about the impact of our actions on others and we must care about their lives, families, their beliefs, and their culture. If we cannot start there, peace will be a very elusive goal.

John

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Permalink Reply by Abdulsattar Younus on October 18, 2009 at 9:35am

Dear John,
thank you very much, I think you are definitely right, I'm so glad to hear your answer and comments.
Sallam

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