Vast Reservoirs of Pain
Author: Gil Friend Issue: 2023-11-01
Vast Reservoirs of Pain
by Gil Friend
Israelis, Jews, Palestinians, Arabs, each and all live in profound and profoundly different narratives, deeply rooted and laced with pain. None of the narratives is true or false, right or wrong, though all of them are grounded, more or less (or more and less), in historical fact, but even more so in a selectivity of facts and interpretations that both shape the narratives and are shaped by them.
One thing I know: there are vast reservoirs of pain all around. Another thing I know: this mess will not be resolved by adjudication of fact , but only by acknowledgment of the mutual pain, and perhaps by willingness to accept a bit more pain now (a different kind of pain—a surrender of part of a narrative identity) in hopes of much less pain (the physical suffering and terror that we see all around us right now) in the future.
As Jane puts it, "Until you can speak the pain of the other to the other, such that they are moved to tears by the depth of your understanding of their pain, trust—and peace—is not truly possible.”
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