PEACE IS A STORY - Steve Daugherty

“It’s easy to blame religious traditions and politicians and journalists for keeping us afraid. And perhaps they deserve some of that critique. But perhaps also they’re just telling us what we want them to. A symbiosis. If we do in fact inherit trauma like we do face shape and hairlines, being at peace might feel like a naive liability. We would therefore want to be told our fears are valid, that we’re smart to pick sides. Eternal vigilance, after all, is the price of liberty.3

But what if, despite our ears still ringing from centuries-old explosions, conflict and fear aren’t the truest thing about any of us? It would take a new kind of effort to believe something this risky. A kind of effort which resists the desperate belief that we must end up being right, even when being right means being unhappy. A kind of effort which stays open when it feels safer to shut down, refusing cheap, shrugging, unseeing verdicts on the other…”

Read more of Steve Daugherty’s exploration of the story that might heal in issue #1 of The Porch – click here to read it if you’re a subscriber, or you can  subscribe here.