Jenga is Looking Pretty Good Right About Now

I spoke with someone this week who told me they were at war with themselves. Having read this quote I could believe it, and yet knew that the outcome would not be a productive one no matter which way their turmoil ended. We talked about it for a while and this person realized that they had to resolve their internal conflict through peace not war. Nothing good comes of war, even when we are battling it within ourselves. Fighting, rage, pain, destruction, mixed with the occasional reprieve eventually leads to internal exhaustion and emotional bankruptcy. And yet we do this to ourselves over and over and over again. The topic may or may not change, yet we torture ourselves over the things no one else knows. That six inches between our ears is the most war torn battleground we know and a very dangerous place to live.

We watch war on tv, read about it online, and can watch videos of it nearly happening before our eyes. We mimic it in videos games to release our aggressions, and are then surprised when our actions turn to violence as an option for resolving things. In real war there claims to be winners and losers, yet in the end both sides eventually look very much the same. Lives are shattered, cities and land destroyed, and people are never ever the same again. The ironic thing about war is that even when we know the consequences we engage in it over and over and over again. It seems that over the decades no real learning has occurred.

Whether it is a battle between nations or within ourselves, war is never the right solution. Whatever war is being used to resolve never truly gets solved and leaves poverty, hunger, pain and death in it’s wake. We are emotionally bankrupt and then move forward weak and wounded by our own actions and thoughts. There has got to be a better way to resolve things.

Maybe the United Nations needs a good game of Jenga – you know the one with the blocks stacked and each turn someone pulls a block away, the loser being the one who tumbles the tower. Send one representative from each war torn space and let them battle it out on the game floor. Leave the people and places out of it, put your strategy into place, and act cautiously. We could battle ourselves the same way, pulling out one stubborn problem at a time until everything comes down to only a few key issues. This may sound silly, and yet destroying people, places and things to “win” in war is just as silly. Like Einstein said, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity…in terms of solving wars Jenga is looking pretty good right about now, don’t you think?