Achieving Peace and Harmony in My Own Life

[shadowkat]

Watched a rather good flick last night entitled Defiance via netflix, although apparently you can watch it online here:http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2386478/defiance_watch_online_the_entire_movie/.

It's not a perfect movie, but then I don't think most of the movies I've seen are perfect.
The film is about the Bielski brothers who saved 1200 jews in the forests of Belruse, at the time - German occupied Poland, between 1941 and 1945. They lived in the forests, hid there, and fought the germans. The film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia and Liev Schrieber as Zus, the oldest brothers, with Jamie Bell as their younger brother Asrael. Tuvia insists on saving people and keeps bringing people to the forest, while Zus insists on fighting the Nazis and goes off to join the Russians in their effort to do so. The film is to a degree about the brothers, but it is mostly about the people in the forest and how the brothers fight to save their lives. In the extras - we get bits and pieces of the real story, which is a moving one. It reminded me how in the middle of violence, rape, and hate - love and life can survive and endure and last. Tuvia states over and over - we do not have to sink to their level. We are not animals. Our best revenge is to survive. And they do. The 1200 gave birth to ten thousand descendants. Craig is quite good as Tuvia, who the movie focuses on. While it is not a great film, sort of wanders a bit, it is a moving one that tells a story that I had not heard. I highly recommend the extras - particularly the Children of the Otriad, where you get to know the people behind the story. As a side note - on CBS This Morning - they had a curator on who exhibited four paintings of Hilter's - Hitler had apparently applied to art school but hadn't gotten in, I wondered what would have happened if he had gotten accepted - would life, all our lives, have turned out different? Probably not. Being an artist would not have changed who Hitler chose to become...that I think would have happened anyhow, after all quite a few people are rejected from art school but do not choose to become fascist dictators interested in mass genocide.

Quotes...that I got from church this morning that I'd like to share here. I am trying out the Unitarian Universalist Church near me - to see if this is a good fit. It is an old church, built and begun in 1833 and as old as the company I currently work for - 175 years old - with stain glass, and wooden benches (the church not the company). Quiet and warm and friendly, with folksongs sung and a violin playing a Beethoven prelude, last week they did Bach. So far, so good. These quotes deal with the idea of achieving peace in one's own life...or rather the topic was I want world peace, but how have I been an agent of peace in my own life?

1. The meaning of compromise is a promise to see another point of view or try things another way
2. Peace and Harmony is not achieved or arrived at by being proven right, it is achieved from compassion and understanding and compromise
3. Often when we are enraged or in the middle of a heated conflict...these are the words the other person and we ourseleves are saying or feeling, it is good to keep them in mind:

I am suffering
I am trying
I need help

And when attempting to resolve a conflict, take a deep breath inwards and think, I feel their suffering, let it out and think, I feel their suffering.

It is apparently a Buddhist view that conflict should be handled with compassion not aggression.

At the front of the church - there is a little sign that says, let us hear your stories or all your stories are welcome here. And during the church service - they stated, we are nothing without our stories. I think that is true. We are nothing without our stories.
And all our stories should be heard.

[After hearing these things and the stories that followed, I felt rather ashamed for failing at these things...then I told myself, sternly, that was in the past, yesterday, tomorrow is a new day. You can't go back you can only go forward and take what you have learned along the way with you. Try to do better tomorrow.]

Comments

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the 'Difiance' rec. It is good find a posiive film. Ordered it from Netflix.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It is rather uplifting in a way, even if the situation is somewhat painful to start.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

But neither shame nor sternness is showing yourself compassion & understanding, & it doesn't seem likely that they would lead to achieving peace in your own life. I can't tell you what will, since I haven't been too good at that in my life, but I hope you find it, at this church or somewhere else.