When he asked the students how they would guess he responded to an invitation to join the guerrilla movement when he was just 21, one responded "I bet you said 'no'; you don't seem like a violent person". He
chuckled and explained that he's not - that he has never killed anyone, doesn't know how to use weapons - but he believed that it was his 'deber' (duty) to join a movement that he felt was really struggling for the people and change. And then, and this is my favorite part, he talked at length about how someone can't really be revolutionary or encourage change if they aren't living in right relationships: with their kids, their neighbors, their classmates, their friends. If we can't figure out how to live in community - if we don't discuss political issues in a loving way with the people close to us, why would we expect our politicians to push through bi-partisan bills? If we don't treat the people in our house well - why would we expect people to make sacrifices for strangers?
It all starts with right relationships. And that's do-able. Poco a poco.
3 comments:
Thanks, daughter, for your example in treating your own household well! Mom
Me gusto el blog, lo que dice tu profesor me recordo a una frase de un anarquista "The state is a condition, a certain relationship between beings, a mode of behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently", recuerdo cuando la lei por primera vez entonces me hizo pensar en que "la cosa" no era una participacion heroica en un movimiento masivo, sino mas bien (o sobretodo) nuestras relaciones cercanas, cotidianas.
Was this Victor? Ah, I miss Guatemala! I hope everything is going really well with the new group and I look forward to reading about your adventures this semester.
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