Worms In Weeds

Judith Brown in her book on Gandhi defines his nonviolence as “striving nonviolently to the point of sacrifice rather than fighting to attain one’s vision of truth.” I guess this definition of nonviolence has impressed me because I find it extremely difficult to strive for the truth, as I see it, to the point of sacrifice. I constantly feel that I need to fight to attain my vision of the truth. This happened again this weekend when some ‘liberal’ peace people made attempts to sabotage our nonviolent action with Rep. Gwen Moore, our liberal Democrat congressperson, to hold her accountable for her votes on war spending. Instead of striving to put into action what a group of us had decided, I kept reacting to those not in the group who are trying to divert the message.

This is not healthy and is not practicing nonviolence. I am trying to look for an example in nature where nature strives to do something, but does not react to obstacles, but continues striving to fulfill its nature. A few examples come to my mind right away. One is weeds that grow between the breaks in the stones in the garden. I can pull them up and poison them but they keep coming back. Another one is worms. You can break a worm into many pieces but it keeps wiggling and striving to fulfill its nature to eat, cast and procreate.

Perhaps I should strive to be a weedy worm of a man, striving nonviolently for the truth, even to the point of sacrifice, rather than reacting to the forces that try to sway me away.

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