Michael Stanley 1st entry

Submitted by michael stanley - December 15, 2007 | Add a Comment

So I start this blog on a somber note. Another teenager, in a moment of raw and blinding desperation, takes the lives of innocent people in a shopping mall in Nebraska. On my side of the ocean, two police officers are shot outside of a coffee shop by Basque separatists. Pause.

I noticed a peculiar pattern to my response to the Omaha shootings. I didn’t want to read about it. It is on the front page of my web searcher. I clicked on all the news but that one. This morning, they even have picture of the kid (yes, at 19 you are still a kid!), with the juicy news of the suicide note being made public. I didn’t click on it. I saw the 911 transcript link. Didn’t click.

Then I went into my email account, and saw the email from my, well, I’ll call her “The Peace Sherpa”, with my login details. I blushed and my avoidance of something else turned into a physical experience. My face felt warm, my mouth tingled. I knew what had to be done. I had to write something. Now.

What a perfect moment to write for a Peace blog. Both shooters (the kid, and the organized group) have causes, have genuine intentions. They will argue that their cause is justified. They all have a “true reason or a cause”.

But I don’t want to argue. I don’t want to sit down and talk about it with them, if I could.

Our “argument” is ACTING PEACE. Doing three of them a day. Perhaps, had Robert Hawkins done Three Acts of Peace of day instead of what he did, he would have saved himself from his unbearable rage. Needless to say, he would have saved 8 peoples lives, if not his own.

What is our cause? What is our reason? Why are YOU, ME, US going to spread ACTS of peace? My answer to you is as plain and simple as this: I don’t care. You don’t have to have a reason. That would make the Act of Peace about you. Just DO the Act of Peace. Make it about Others.

Now, since this is a personal blog entry, I’ll tell you a story: My lovely wife will give birth to a baby girl in March. A month ago, we called our family members with the news that we had decided on the name. I called my Dad. When I told him the name, he says, and I’m quoting: “That is the most aweful name I’ve heard in my life. Are you serious?” Any other day of the year, my Dad and I would have had it out over the phone. I would have reacted, then he, then me again. And we wouldn’t have talked for days. My wife, who was sitting next to me, saw my face turn extremely red. But I made a choice. I breathed in, and simply told him that I would have liked for him to like it, and that I hope he grows to like the name. And we said goodbye and hung up. This, for me, was an Act of Peace. I can tell you within a few hours we were talking again. We made amends. He thanked me for not reacting. I prefer this type of relationship.

Take care of yourselves, Michael Stanley

PS: I promise my entries won’t be so long. It’s the first entry...

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