Madrid

[Sally Haden]

Hello all
I am glad, in these times, to have somewhere to turn where I know people
will be thinking through what's happened.

But first and foremost my thoughts and prayers are with those who are
suffering most immediately.

Having said that, and having read what has been written so far, I would like
to say it may be more helpful to think of other things than to cast blame.
To consider prayerfully what terrorism means - maybe that's one thing.  For
me personally, terrorism means violence.  Humans have within them both
violence and goodness.  And are we not all human?  In my heart as in the
heart of every human being, is constituted violence as well as goodness -
well, the seeds of each, at least.  I can't help it.  It's part of being
human.  I don't say it as an excuse for violence.  Rather I say it because
what we are looking at is 'war' that isn't 'war' as we used to know it, as
it has been known up until recent years.  It isn't 'war' anymore.  Or if it
is, it has come home.  It is on our own doorstep.  It is in our own home.
There are no frontiers anymore.
People are looking frantically at who to blame.  And clearly it is getting
harder and harder to identify who does this kind of thing, as we are seeing
in Madrid.  Why? Not just because of the increasing networks between
terrorist groups, but  because violence has become endemic across the world.
  "Terrorism" is just organised violence.  And to believe there's no
significant violence in 'democratic' society is an illusion.  We love to
project, so we blame.
Okay, I am not a politician, and glad of that!  I don't know the answers, I
wouldn't have a clue what to do about these things on a practical level,
and things do need to be done, but I am still certain that the "us-and-them"
game is a waste of energy.
I think we must do all we possibly can, as people who appreciate things like
the Camino, to work on the peace in our own hearts, to seriously build that
up.  Peace is stronger than anything - not political peace, but the peace of
the heart.
In peace
Sally
Lancashire

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