1993.
In my first year as a law student in the UK, a bomb planted by IRA nationalists detonated outside Harrods, injuring four. I was not based in London, but I had friends living there. I remember both being confused and feeling woefully uninformed. Why did this happen? Why were people so angry? Why hurt innocent people? What happens now? Young minds, in particular, find it hard to grapple with severe violence. This is why we shield children from it, because violence is a deep, complex and primal psychological impetus.
With experience, we begin to intuitively understand violence, even if we are not violent individuals. As we become adults, we feel a deepened sense of grievance when we witness injustice or unfairness: surely when experienced by ourselves or those we love, but also if committed against others. We experience this reaction as anger, and this triggers an understanding of the mechanics of anger and why it can lead to violence. Our conscience stimulates questions such as whether and when it is right to commit violence, against whom, and for what justification. (For further discussion, consider “Stop and/end Hate” on the DBInside segment of Deeply Boring).
In just over a week we will observe summer solstice, marking the beginning of summer. In Northern Ireland, summer solstice has, since 2007, also been observed as the Day of Private Reflection, a time to reflect on the violence of the Irish conflict, and to contemplate the promises of peace. The solstice was chosen because it affords an opportunity to look both back, to the past, and ahead, to the future.
There is something to this: to pause, consider, remember, feel, process, resolve, and hope. Do we not somehow need this in all our lives – we marked by trauma, abuse, painful relationships, disappointments, betrayal, infidelity, discrimination, and all such sufferings?
And do not all countries have scars - of wounds that have scabbed over but do not go away - whether racism, ethnic hatred, strife, war, civil conflict, oppression, or otherwise? Such a pity that only such deep and painful scarring in Ireland prompted a collective recognition of this very universal need. Rather than a “Day of Private Reflection”, the world needs “Private Reflection each Day”.
Still, it seems too few of us emerge from such reflection more conscious of our own failings, and more forgiving of the failings of others; to seek justice without self-righteousness. This is the reason why, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes “Do not let the sun go down on your anger”. This June 20th, in Rovaniemi, the regional capital of Lapland, Finland, the day will last for 24 hours. And yet, I suspect even an endless day would not last long enough for us to let go of our anger (see “How I Broke the World”).
The reality is that anger, even rightfully borne, longs for deeper healing: the pain within demands somewhere, or someone, to transfer the violence in our hearts onto. Is this true? If so, what are we to do?
J
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