Peace, Love, and War

Our planet is now at war against an alien invader. The enemy is an alien to our bodies, and fighting it together could bring us humans to a new beginning of peace and love.


I'm a baby boomer and an aging hippy.

That gives me a particular point of view
  about current events
    and the circumstances
      in which we find ourselves now.

Personally I believe in peace and love,
  and realistically I recognize that
    we are a world at war.

The enemy we are fighting is microscopic
  so that it is invisible to us
    except for the harm it causes.

All the people of the planet are in the same boat,
  so to speak,
    except that some people
      have far more resources
        than the rest.

It may not be fair,
  but it is the situation we are in.

It may be better to say
  [as did a meme I saw recently],
    that we are not all in the same boat,
      but we are all in the same storm.

Far too many people
  who are in positions of public trust
    are seeking their own advantage
      rather than caring for the people
        who depend on their care.

In saying this,
  I'm not talking about any leader in particular,
    but I'm certain that the phenomenon
      will sound familiar to you.

I fact, the truth is that our primary weapon
  in the war against our invisible enemy
    is our caring for each other.

[Commandments of Love? Two, not Ten, not 613]

In order to provide the caring we need,
  those who  care for others day by day
    need tools such as medical equipment
      and medications that work against the enemy.

The medical equipment needed
  includes such things as hospital beds, ventilators,
    and, maybe especially,
      the personal protective equipment
        also known as PPE like gowns, masks,
          goggles or other face coverings and the like
            that blunt the enemy's attacks
              against our front line care givers.

Where the primary weapon of a war
  is caring, it is a different kind of war.

Peace and Love are the power behind the caring.

So it is that we are fighting
  such a different kind of war.

It is a unique opportunity to use our primary weapon
  not only in the time of the war itself,
    but even more so will it be true
      in the period after the war is won. 

I believe there is reason to be confident
  that we will win this war.

Our fighters are strong.

Our weapon of caring
  is universally available to them and to us.

And the tools they need can be produced
  by all kinds of people
    in all kinds of circumstances.

To my knowledge,
  never before in the history of warfare
    have sewing machines been so useful
      in the hands of all kinds of people
        as factories of necessary equipment
          in the winning of a worldwide war.

The sewing machines have been useful
  in making masks and gowns
    as necessary equipment
      to protect our care givers,
        who are our troops
          as they go into battle.

All the people of our small planet
  are being affected by this war and its battles.

All the people of our small planet
  can pull together as one
    in peace and love in new ways,
      not only to win this war
        but also to win the peace
          which comes after it.

In a painful irony of our time
  people have shown love
    by staying apart.
 
People all over the world
  have protected the most vulnerable
    by leaving them alone and in peace.

That has certainly not always felt good!

It has been a deeply painful experience
  in many cases.

Even after we begin to go out and about more,
  even when we are starting
    to gather in small groups,
      some of the pain will remain.

Our contact with each other will be more limited.

Some of us love our hugs.

Those can be deeply important.

For a time, our hugging will be limited.

Even handshakes may be a thing of the past,
  since those can be a major point of contagion.

At the same time, the pain we endure
  in reducing our contact with each other
    can be a major step forward in our battle
      against the invisible enemy that threatens us all.

Sadly, in nearly real time,
  we have been watching
    the conversion of many efforts
      to fight the universal enemy
        into fights against each other
          as part of an ongoing culture war.

As a baby boomer who is also an aging hippy,
  I'm caught in the middle of that very culture war.

All too many people in my age group
  are on the side of more and more conservative
    culture warriors.

As a Christian, I see more and more
  of my co-religionists
    making choices against my preferences
      regarding culture.

A joke I saw recently said,
  "Marijuana is legal, and haircuts are illegal.
    The hippies have won!"

The words of the joke are not universally true,
  especially in the midst of the culture war,
    but the idea stands both as irony
      and as a representation of the zeitgeist,
        the spirit of the age.

In the time of the election of 2016,
  both just before it and just after it,
    the sign of the times was the MAGA hat,
      the red baseball cap that represented,
        "Make America Great Again!"

Now, in the time of a global conflict
  against a universal enemy,
    the sign of the times is a mask and gloves.

There is a lot of misunderstanding
  of the face masks that protect us
    from spraying germs on the people around them.

Some individuals are walking around without masks
  as a way of saying
    that they are not afraid of the germs.

The people who are taking more extreme positions
  are, as usual, a small minority.

- 78% of Americans believe people in their communities should stay home as much as possible.
- 80% of Americans say it's important to wear a mask in public.
- Only 21% of Americans say current restrictions on businesses are too restrictive.

And these numbers cut across all kinds of demographics: education, race, age, income, rural/urban. It's not just rich educated coastal elites who think we should stay home. Most people, from every background, agree.

The statehouse protests are astroturfed, artificial, fake conflicts, and they're getting way too much validation.

Most people are trusting the evidence of science,
  despite news reports that are more interested
    in entertainment than information.

At the same time, there are serious efforts
  to keep us ever more deeply divided
    just as we need to unite more closely
      to win a war that threatens us all.

I'm optimistic, anyway.

We will come together,
  and we will prevail,
    as we work together
      to protect the most vulnerable people around us
        [including me!].

As with any war, there will be casualties.

There will be people who will be blamed.

It will not be an easy task,
  but peace and love will prevail,
    because there are more of us
      who want to see it come to be
        than there are of those who seek to divide us.

Having come together
  to do what we have to do to protect each other,
    it will never again be so easy to divide us
      over issues that matter much less.

We will have loved each other most effectively
  by staying apart for a time.

We will learn to treasure our togetherness,
  and we will learn new ways to express our caring.

We have seen changes for the better
  in our Earth Herself,
    and we will not so easily go back to harming Her
      in ways that too many of us
        thought were inevitable.

I have a lot of hope for our future.

I believe in
  and I am committed to
    peace and love,
      and maybe for the first time in history,
        those are our weapons enabling us
          to win a war that threatens all our lives.

Peace be with us all.

May we all indeed learn new ways
  to share our love with each other


Amen.

So let it be.

Blessed be.