-Michael Banerjee
This morning, I was fortunate enough to partake in a training session on nonviolence lead by certified Kingian Nonviolent Trainer, Pastor Ronald Smith. This session took place at his church in Selma, Alabama, known as Selma Community Church. While my commitment to nonviolence is well over a year old, I had never been formally trained or otherwise instructed in nonviolence prior to today. The overarching themes presented throughout the seminar were familiar: justice, unconditional love, positive peace, etc.; however, the seminar also helped bring to my attention the fact that I had previously failed to consider one crucial aspect of nonviolence: the idea of non-physical violence. Prior to today’s session, I had failed to consider this dimension of nonviolence explicitly but had lived by it for some time. Recently, I allowed this dimension of nonviolence, that I had only implicitly considered previously, to falter. This adversely affected every aspect of my life and lead to a heightened sense of unhappiness. Explicitly recognizing non-physical violence has lead to a peculiar sense of clarity, in that it applies to certain aspects of my commitment to nonviolence but does not apply to others. In some aspects, this recognition has worked to further my incertitude.
This post is short but before I can comment further, I have much more thinking, training, and learning to do. In spite of this, my commitment to nonviolence has never been stronger. Although I still have work to do, I cannot describe through these words, or any others, the relief I feel at this moment.
This morning, I was fortunate enough to partake in a training session on nonviolence lead by certified Kingian Nonviolent Trainer, Pastor Ronald Smith. This session took place at his church in Selma, Alabama, known as Selma Community Church. While my commitment to nonviolence is well over a year old, I had never been formally trained or otherwise instructed in nonviolence prior to today. The overarching themes presented throughout the seminar were familiar: justice, unconditional love, positive peace, etc.; however, the seminar also helped bring to my attention the fact that I had previously failed to consider one crucial aspect of nonviolence: the idea of non-physical violence. Prior to today’s session, I had failed to consider this dimension of nonviolence explicitly but had lived by it for some time. Recently, I allowed this dimension of nonviolence, that I had only implicitly considered previously, to falter. This adversely affected every aspect of my life and lead to a heightened sense of unhappiness. Explicitly recognizing non-physical violence has lead to a peculiar sense of clarity, in that it applies to certain aspects of my commitment to nonviolence but does not apply to others. In some aspects, this recognition has worked to further my incertitude.
This post is short but before I can comment further, I have much more thinking, training, and learning to do. In spite of this, my commitment to nonviolence has never been stronger. Although I still have work to do, I cannot describe through these words, or any others, the relief I feel at this moment.