North Korea

I have to admit that crises, such as that created by the current tensions surrounding North Korea and nuclear weapons development, produce within me two distinct reactions. One, I have to admit, is largely to do with the question: 'If this gets out of control is my life under threat?' Well, of course, there is a neurotic self-absorbed element to this thinking and feeling. Recognising that is, however, of considerable importance. The second reaction is to want to listen to the news frequently, like the little boy waiting to hear that his mother and father have stopped rowing in their bedroom, as he will have security in his home until the next row. As an adult, there is temptation to find some sort of palliative, some sort of escape from the shame of such anxiety. The reason I write this is not out my self-absorption, although there is that element in it.
Simone Weil was said to lose a heartbeat every time she heard of suffering somewhere oin the world. What she did was to allow the heart of her prayer to be a 'crucible' where the anxiety was transformed into a Christ-like identification with the situation that caused the loss of heart beats. That, I offer to you, is a profound description of contemplative interecession, to which i shall return in a future posting.
Reflection on anxiety is fundamentally important - not escape. I can't help wondering how many people listen or watch the news and don't know what to do or be with the anxiety created in them, about which they feel they can do little, if anything. To be massively simplistic, if someone listening to the news felt they could genuinely do something about intractable crises in the world, they would not be trapped in the anxiety.
So where does this take me? Well, the first issue is that terrifying though nuclear weapons are, even if one can remotely understand the effects of their use, it is not the weapons that are at issue but the psycho-political use of them in the struggle for power. The people and nations who get into the position of wanting to use such negative imagery must be understood. So my project this week is to find the time to understand the circumstances of North Korea and why there is this desperate defensiveness there. It is simply not good enough to point the finger at some lampooing imagery of the North Korean leader, or to indulge in the increasingly dismissive atttitudes to the President of the US. Uninformed and lazy dismissiveness is more dangerous than sitting outside the door of the powerful 'parents', waiting to know if they are going to kiss and make up. At least I can acknowledge my short trousers and go and change into something that will fit a dose of reflection. Following Columba.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles