Of My Path (11th Violent Verse of 2010)

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Center for Nonviolent Solutions

Characteristics of a nonviolent campaign:
▪ respect for the opponent/everyone involved-
▪ care for everyone involved-
▪ refusal to harm, damage or degrade people-
▪ if suffering is inevitable, willingness to take it on yourself rather than inflict it on others
▪ belief that everyone is capable of change-
▪ appeal to the opponents' humanity-
▪ recognition that no one has a monopoly of truth, so aims to bring together our 'truth' and the opponents' 'truth'-
▪ understanding that the means are the ends in the making, so the means have to be consistent with the end-
~

And I told them, since goodness flows from my pores through fiery passion and underneath the feet of humanity, I shall alter my course to tunnel out from failure, irrigating the roots of my blossoms.

All around me I remember, recall kinship, my connection with those I see. I did not expect adoration to be waiting ahead of me, I imagined signs in the shape of vipers, coiled around my trespasses, pale blue.

I do not expect. I pray for truth and strive for compassion in me first. Man will consider me to be of peace; a dangerous man, a free spirit, open arms, tender eyes, standing by. And I’ll say, I love, I love, I love! I’ll care for every person, every plant, every tree and blade of grass, every living thing, all breath and sacred ground. And if this worship grants air to only one, even if this, my love, carts agony and places a trap or casualty for me, then so be it.

Of this path I say to them, good. Let it be taken, let it be walked upon, traveled upon flesh back home, but, before I trek, before I walk next to even one, I must remember my tall devotion, my humanity and the globe’s monstrous pain, a looking glass that mirrors my face, the stage from which I view this world.