Moments lived in "piece"...thou shall not kill...
We hosted a barbeque the other day with some local friends, out of town friends and some family. Beautiful night in So Cal - shrimp, salmon, tri-tip and plenty of booze, good time had by all. The topics of discussion were - dating, politics, the economy, kids, etc. - and the conversations were lively, fun and there was some good spirited jabbing going on especially when love and politics were top of mind.
Towards the end of the night, one of the out of town friends told us a story about how when he was young he left the U.S. to go back to his home country to join a rebel army to fight a government intrusion into the rights of indigenous people where his family was from. Wow. He left the comfy life in the U.S. to head for the hills to fight for an injustice in another country. Pretty amazing stuff and by most standards very heroic and something to be admired. As part of the story, it was asked whether he had actually experienced "combat", meaning, did he have to shoot and/or kill anyone. The question was never answered directly (on purpose I think), but the inference was - "yes". Another WOW moment.
After the guests had left my wife, my brother, another friend and I were having a night cap out by the fire when my brother brought up how much he admired what our out of town friend had done. I certainly did agree with him but also said I thought it was wrong that fighting and killing "as long as there is a justification for it" are OK. Meaning, war and killing is rationalized every day in our world. No bueno. I wasn't "judging" any individual for going to war, I was questioning why humans in general accept and admire that behavior as heroic and the right thing to do. You can draw on wisdom from many places on this topic but the 10 commandments say it pretty clearly - thou shall not kill. Not much interpretation needed there - so, why is fighting/killing if it is for a "good" cause acceptable? Don't both sides have a "cause, country, organization, etc." and in their minds aren't both sides on the "right" side? My brother was taken aback by my statements so he kicked it up a notch. He asked me if I would kill to defend my wife and my kids. I answered without hesitation, "No, there is never justification to kill."
Another WOW moment...for him, not me. "piece".*
*piece 2.0 is the acknowledgement that we are all an equal "piece" of the universe and should ACT (key word here) that way by considering people, the planet and prosperity in each moment. Moments lived in "piece" result in individual peace of mind, body and spirit and ultimately, peace on earth.