War and Acceptance in 2020
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. --- Aristotle Dialogue is the reciprocity of acceptance, and it begins with the 'selfie'. Climbing any high mountain is most arduous at the very last step. Why? It's something psychologists call ‘approach-avoidance’ that often prevents us from taking that last step to secure our long-cherished goal. Fear of both failure and/or success stunts many victories. Reaching the panicle of A Year Without War in 2020 requires that last step we most want to avoid; acceptance. This fourth in the five-part series was supposed to be the hardest to write. Instead, it wrote itself. As demonstrated in the previous three posts, forgiveness requires mercy , and reconciliation requires forgiveness, so too acceptance requires reconciliation to arrive at peace for one year in 2020. But acceptance seems a step too far. It seems to demand more than what we are able. The price seems too