"Facts and figures never stand a chance in collision with human nature and the instinct to see things in one’s own best light.

Tat Montague

How do you deal with one that has simple thoughts and can not see the bigger picture? Who is right and who is wrong. Who has the simple thoughts and who is the more enlightened?

   My housing development is nestled into a background of forest. If fact sometimes it’s like living in a jungle. We have lot’s of trees, birds, raccoons, coyotes and occasional bears.

   People that live here love the setting and the animals. Most of us feed the squirrels and have feeders for the small birds. I hand feed the squirrels and blue jays. I have names for most of them.

   My closest neighbour does likewise with possibly one exception, she likes crows. All day long she is feeding them. They come early in the morning around 5 am dine at her place until dusk. Problem is all her neighbours live very close and are bothered by the noise. Some suffering from sleep deprivation, including myself.

   I have approached her on the issue with little success. She is an immigrant and has little understanding of English, but enough to know what I’m talking about. Her and her husband get up early, around the time the crows are waking up the neighbourhood…for them it’s a natural alarm clock and is welcomed.

   I called to her over the fence one day and talked to her about it. I pointed out the noise factor and some of the solutions that we as a residential body could do to limit the impact of the crows. She was terrified of the fact that we could capture them or kill them as choices to alleviate the problem. She agreed to stop feeding them and I agreed to stop feeding the blue jays as a jester of good faith. The next day she was back at it again, laying out food for them.

   I bring up this little story, because this is so much like what we as a world body have to deal with everyday. This is how wars are started. This is a very simple story, but has the same consequences as two countries going to war. The choices between power and reason, still prevail. Relationships are damaged and severed, one becomes a looser, the other a winner. Power in strength verses power in numbers. Sophistication or simplicity. Good over evil.

   What do you do when both wills are locked in and neither side "wants" to see the other side’s perspective? What do you do when one side actually sees and understands the other side’s perspectives and still must have their way?

   The lines are drawn in this story, each waiting for the other side to do something. Neither one at this point ready to give in.

   In the bigger picture, there is only one person at war. The person that I am about to go to war with is myself, and I am a formidable enemy. The neighbor across the fence is a reflection of myself…in a different body, the weaker one, from my perspective. The image we both see across the fences are the images of our discarded selves…the parts of us that we thought we had hidden, buried or dealt with, and here they are facing us.

   Once again it’s the same choice or failure to make a choice, that each of us makes everyday to make peace with ourselves or some aspect of ourselves. For most, the differences are buried and not recognizable from our own perspective. There is no will to deal with them, so we force the issues out of the way. But now the issue is staring us in the face and challenging us. What are the choices, war, peace or compromise. I don’t believe that compromise is ever a solution. It’s simple burying the issue again. At best it’s a temporary solution, a cloaking device we use to hide our real desires. Neither side gets what they want, there is only a temporary solution to an underlying problem.

   Somewhere, someday if the parties have not been assimilated into a common thought process, it will come up again. The desires of both do not simply go away because there is a truce. There must be follow-up and honest discussion and a will on both sides to come to terms with conflicting desires. All roads lead to the same place eventually. Peace doesn’t come from assimilation, but from a desire for it and all things reflect the desires of the individuals or groups involved. War is a quick fix, and simply reflects the evolution or enlightenment of the ones that are at war. It’s a natural progress, peace comes from war and an awareness of a higher purpose.

   Always in any conflict the real enemy is the face you see in the mirror. This truly is the face of the enemy and conflict is always seen as lack on the part of the other. But the real lack is the inability to look back at oneself, forgive the one you see, give yourself a great big hug, say I love you and resolve to work it out, with yourself. To know you enemy is to know yourself. Always stay close to your enemy.

   All of this sounds very enlightened and praise worthy, but in practice it is so difficult. My neighbour and I are still starring down the barrels or our proverbial guns with our fingers on the triggers. I guess the human thing to do would be to just shoot. That is what our history has shown us for the most part. Certainly I believe that there would not be anything wrong with that. I don’t believe in right or wrong, but what works for me and what does not, considering first how I see myself spiritually and at what level of enlightenment I see myself at. I really want to pull the trigger, but the spiritual side of me is tapping me on the other shoulder.

   My only consideration at this time should be, what works for me. To remain true to myself, I must react from out of the shadow of my own light, and declare who I am. If I am a killer I should react accordingly, if I see myself as a compromiser, I should do exactly that, if I see myself as an problem solver, this is a wonderful opportunity. In fact this is a gift from my neighbour to me, or myself to myself to react in any of these manors and reaffirm who I am.

   The answer is not in looking at my neighbor, but it lies within myself to choose wisely and honestly, so that all will know including myself, who I am.