Apathy or Ache?

Last Wednesday, International Peace Day, I was invited to speak to students and faculty at a very large public high school in Ridgefield, CT. E., a senior at the school who made the arrangements, is what her mother calls an "old soul." She had arranged a room upstairs and across from the cafeteria. Students could get their food then come into the room and join us for an open forum and discussion about peace. She had asked friends to come, and made announcements at the school. I'm not sure what other advertising there was. Less than 1% of the student population showed up.

From the cars and local shops, I observed that Ridgefield, CT is an upper class suburban township. I googled the high school and found the following statistics: has an enrollment of about 1424 (grades 9-12); is 93% white; and only 2% of the students are receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Let me tell you, that public school was NICE!

Enter a nun in habit, ready to open a discussion about what the Earth can teach us about peace. There are four lunch periods, each 45 minutes long. The first period, one student showed up. A young man, whom E. actually didn't know. I was standing in the hallway and he asked why. Apparently I peaked his interest with my topic (the Earth teaching us about peace), so he decided to stay. But halfway through he challenged me. He said he did not believe peace was possible in our lifetime, or ever. It would take a change of consciousness that he did not believe was possible for humans to make. The second lunch period, no students showed up. The third lunch period, no students showed up at first, then with only 15 minutes until the end three came and two teachers (so I gave the cliff notes version). The fourth lunch period, four of E.'s friends came and three parents, one being E.'s mom. E. had mentioned that when she asked one of her friends to come to the talk she'd told her, "Why bother? It's a waste of time. There will never be peace."

So what was this? I asked myself. A school filled with teens headed toward adulthood and college. Obviously most of them (according to the statistics 98%) not having to worry about their basic needs being met and most likely having much more than they could possibly need or want. Yet they haven't the time or care to waste in talking about world peace. It looked like apathy to me. Why should they care? Look at all they had. They didn't have to worry about anything, about whether their town well was being drained dry by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, or whether their drinking water was being polluted by the milling factory making their clothes, or whether some foreign government was trying to force their way into their homes and lives.

But Sr. Catherine Grace had a different idea. She thought perhaps what they were displaying more than apathy, was ache. Ache because there's a deep, inherent part inside of them that somehow knows that everything their parents are pushing them to do and succeed and have is somehow disconnected and killing a part of themselves as it kills the Earth.

I shared this with the few students who did come to talk about peace. And I'll write it here as clear as I'm able. (I don't have a board in which to draw a picture.) It's my belief that one of the reasons we don't have peace today is because humans have removed themselves from the processes of the Earth. The Earth is ONE process which INCLUDES the human being. And humans aren't the end of that process or necessarily at the top of that process. Because we have disconnected ourselves from that process, we developed a sense of entitlement and possession when it comes to the Earth, its resources and, at times, other people. Thus we use the Earth and we use people and when we're through with them, they're dispensable.

If we, as humans, were able to make a major consciousness shift and re-connect...."re-member" that we are a part of the Earth processes, then we would be unable to treat the Earth and our brothers and sisters the way we do now. Because we would understand that so as we treat them, we are treating ourselves.