[thoughts spurred from recent conversations, Tolstoy & Brueggemann]

In reference to the way of non-violence:

1) one must make a commitment to the Kingdom of Peace
2) one must make a commitment to creation (thus, fellow man)
3) one must deny the power of the state

These are the big places to begin. For many, there remains an unwillingness to throw out most if not all personal and cultural baggage when attempting to fashion a new way of life. One must leave something to follow something (or someone). Though it is not always easy, especially when those people or that institution has played such a huge part in one’s experience and validated his/her milieu; one must be prepared leave the dead to bury the dead.

Only in disorientation can we create a new communal re-orientation.