These first few weeks of class we have been focusing a lot on violence, or the lack of violence, and peace. After this week, I think that it is fair to say that there is a much larger spectrum of peace than simply trying to prevent violent acts from occurring.
On Thursday evening, a 16-year-old high school basketball star collapsed suddenly after making the winning shot in a game that sealed a 20-0 undefeated season. After scoring the winning basket in overtime and having a short time to celebrate the victory, this young man collapsed on the basketball court in front of an estimated 1400 people. He was eventually rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead due to sudden cardiac arrest.
This story is not one that I would consider violent, however, I don’t think it is fair to call it a peaceful one either. After hearing about this story I couldn’t help but think that the player’s family and friends are going to have to take some time in order to find peace. One definition of peace that I found is “the absence of mental stress or anxiety”. For any death that occurs, whether it is due to a violent act or not, there is some amount of stress and anxiety involved for those impacted by the death. This player’s family, teammates, coaches, and friends will all experience emotional feelings with regards to this event. Feelings that I believe are not ones to be considered peaceful.
The discussion on inner-peace is an interesting one and I think it can connect to the ways we study peace and violence between human beings; be they acts of war or individual attacks. It makes me wonder: when the mind is under stress and anxiety does that mean outward acts violence are more likely? That would be my guess and I wonder if that’s a big enough phenomenon where it’s noticed in warring states. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Each one has to find peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances”.
Of course, the case here with the parents, teammates, coaches and friends experiencing a traumatic event, this is not to say that they are more prone to violent behavior. On a personal level, those emotions are not peaceful. I would agree that they are indeed violent. How we release these emotions is something that we have a lot of choice in and it can be done in healthy and unhealthy ways. I hope we talk more about feelings of violence and the emotional climate that can lead to it.
I’m glad you brought up this idea of inner peace. I would like to think that I, as well as those around me, are for the most part, in a state of emotional peace. However, when it is defined as “the absence of mental stress or anxiety” I find that nearly everyday I would not be within this definition of peace.
As Wade mentioned, although the parents, teammates, coaches and friends are experiencing a traumatic event, they are not necessarily more prone to violent behaviors. However, they are certainly in an agitated, upset state. When these anxious and depressed states are prolonged, in response to stimuli or not, the effects can be devastating. Whats even more worrisome is that people seem to be spending more time in this stressed state than ever before and are therefore exposed to the detrimental effects of being in that state. It doesn’t seem like conditions are going to get any less stressful either. Life is not going to slow down and give you a break every time you need one. So how do we deal with this stress in a positive way and achieve inner peace? I think this question is only going to become of more importance in the future.