A Visit with Arun Gandhi

Back in 2002, Cece and a friend traveled to Santa Barbara, California and happened upon a Peace Retreat hosted by Arun Gandhi.  It changed and impacted both their lives.  For the friend, it gave her the courage to speak out to social justice issues in the classroom.  For Cece it taught her about a violence genealogy....a self-examine that she has done  every day...ever since.

And so this very same friend contacted Cece and told her Arun Gandhi was coming to speak in Albuquerque did she want to go!  "Yes!"  she said. Cece purchased her ticket and waited for the day to arrive.

But when the day arrived, Cece was not feeling well at all.  She tried to will herself to feel better, but she could not.  She tried to "gift" her expensive ticket so someone else could attend, but could not find anyone.

And so she sat, trying to feel better...and thought of her friend and Arun Gandhi from her home.

The next day, she noticed that her friend had posted a small gratitude post on Facebook and Cece called her friend to get all the details.  They talked and talked.  Her friend had taken notes and spent 45 minutes reciting the notes and describing his talk. Cece was filled with gratitude that her friend took the time to take notes and convey them to her.

Then her friend said, "I got you something, can I stop by your office tomorrow and give it to you?"  The friends made a plan,.

Friday came and there was her friend at the receptionist's desk.  The friends went into Cece's office.  Out of a green fabric shopping bag came a book written by Arun Gandhi.  Her friend said, "Open it."  She had asked Arun Gandhi to write a greeting and he signed his name.  Cece teared up. How very thoughtful and unexpected this gift was.  Cece felt she had a little piece of Arun Gandhi now and hopefully his wisdom!  And hopefully his ability to listen and be still and be present to people's concerns.

The violence genealogy that Cece does every day, speaks to passive and physical violence and how passive violence FUELS the physical violence.  Passive violence are things like hatred, prejudice,labeling other people, misuse of authority,supporting groups that do bad things (KKK, big tobacco and others), putting forth ideas used to embarrass, being critical, bad mouthing or gossiping, de-valuing people, teasing, bullying, disrespecting....

As we can see from the world around us, including the issues involving the killings of blacks by police, terrorism, the concepts of white supremacy and  the upcoming election, the fuel for violence is abundant.

But this genealogy calls Cece to look at herself first... because she can certainly participates in passive violence herself!

 It is Cece's hope that you too can examine your conscience and see how you use passive violence to fuel your interactions with others.  No one is above this.  But when we find error....we work to correct it.