Jerusalem – Home of Peace

Recently, a wise companion on my life journey begged me to define what I thought was my life's mission. Why am I here, for what purpose? Is my life really just about collecting one pay check after the next? If it was really about that, would I have taken the bold step of uprooting my life as I knew it and moving half way across the world with my son and a few suitcases in tow? No, clearly only an insane person would do that for a mere paycheck. Looking back through my life and the very early lessons I was called to witness, it became clear that my mission is to somehow bring peace, wisdom, teaching to others as a bridge-builder, as somebody who breaks down traditional barriers. And to do so through what I consider my pretty mundane way of life and the choices I make every day (not by picketing with a colorful Peace sign on the street).

When I got clear on that mission (although that clarity is still only coming to me in bits and pieces), I decided to figure out why it was that I was so pulled to this place from my very first visit (after ironically resisting visiting Palestine and Jerusalem for a number of years. So, I started where I normally start, searching for meaning. What is the meaning of the word "Jerusalem"? Home of Peace or "to teach peace." (The Arabic name for Jerusalem "Al Quds" means holy place). At last, I could relax knowing in fact that what I thought as some accidental stop on my journey of life, was in fact a clear choice to step foot into a place, into the home of peace, where peace in fact is very much in short supply.

Even though I have only physically lived in Jerusalem now for a little more than 6 months, it is starting to grow on me. One of my favorite aspects of Jerusalem is watching so many cultures and religions rub shoulders with each other. If an alien from some unknown planet was to land in Jerusalem, they would say, "Hey, look at all those men in beards dressed in long robes." What they would be observing are men from all of the three main faiths. Or, if the aliens happened to spot the women, "Hey look at all those women dressed in so many layers of clothes with those head coverings on." And yes, they would be observing women from the three main monotheistic faiths. How is it that people who have such familiar cultural and religious roots find the need to define themselves in this place only by emphasizing their differences?

My answer to that question is fear. And fear manifests itself in the mental and physical barriers that are built to separate, define, dehumanize, and highlight the differences. In my perhaps skewed or uncommon understanding of religion, I find it very hard to believe that God (of the monotheistic religions) has called his followers to "divide", to separate, to understand their religion through the voices of hate for other religions. And so, I find myself often in the streets of Jerusalem feeling absolutely no sense of spirituality, and often times many powerful feelings of injustice. I can't believe this tenuous situation that surrounds the old city walls and seeps under the doorsteps of family homes can continue at the pace it is, but looking back in history, I am perhaps one of many to believe the same thing. There is nothing to prophesize here. There can only be hope that at some point, peace will come as the obvious answer to everybody's solution.