Please Pass the Peace

I’m a great believer in passing.
Not passing in the sense of “from this world to the next,” rather, as in “passing the peace.”

Sometimes I like to talk about “please pass the money.” I earn it, I spend it; in other words, someone passes it to me, and I pass it to you. Last week, when I had to change some American dollars into Indian rupees, a friend worried that I hadn’t received a good rate of exchange. “I will spend the money in India, one way or another,” I told her. “If some of it is spent in that shop, so be it.”

What we must guard against is passing hurt or pain to one another. Remember the old story of the man who has a hard day at work and comes home, passing the pain to his wife, who passes it to the children, who kick the dog?

I’ve noticed hurt being passed around me lately, and I’ve even received some. We put out our hands in greeting and friendship, only to find someone has dumped a pile of their pain. It can masquerade as humor or teasing, but nevertheless, the stinger remains.

The temptation is to keep passing it, either back to the bestower (the Game of Gotcha) or any willing receiver. Seeing this practice on a small scale, I am not at all surprised by how proficient nations have become, particularly my own, in waging war…the ultimate passing of pain.

Wrongly, we imagine that if we can just get this pain out of our hands, pain will end. The last bomb will bring peace is the General’s strategy, thinking the target will simply stop the game.

How hard it is to not send a volley forth, to find the grace and compassion to not accept the pain as passed, but simply to lay it down and walk away.

Everyday, we are given opportunities to pass something to the person next to us. To pass pain, peace, money, love, understanding, gossip, good news, bad news, inspiration, contagion, best wishes.

Let’s pledge to pass along only that which creates a peaceful, more loving home, neighborhood and planet. Such a promise is within our control, and worth our while.