Hostility

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So often, when we look at someone else, we only see him as something that is either for us or against us. We see him as somebody who we can get something from, or as somebody who will prevent us from having what we want. We don't see him as a person, but as something to be used or avoided. We don't see that he has many things in common with us, but just focus on the ways that he is not like us.

We fight each other because we want to have control over each other. If the other person won't give me what I want, then he needs to be eliminated, or at least made powerless to do me any harm. We are all focused on what we want, and we are determined to get it at all costs. We are not looking on the enemy as another human being, but as some object that can be pushed out of our way.

If we could only realize that the other person is hurting just as much as we are, then we would be able to see his humanity. We would show him more compassion. All of us have known sorrow and suffering. It is part of the human condition. All of us secretly long for peace, because we know at some level, that peace is the only thing that is going to make the suffering go away. If we only would realize that our enemy wants peace as much as we do, then perhaps we could work together with him to make it happen.

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