Finding Peace Essays - Peace And Conflict Studies, Nonviolence

Finding Peace Conflicts can occur at home, work, or with any everyday situation. The causes for any conflict can result from many possibilities, but the cause is sometimes misunderstood. The Anatomy of Peace explains how to get past any and all factors that may contribute to a problem/conflict. Getting past self-justifying reactions and pre-mature judgement can help with seeing the world clearly and dealing with conflicts effectively. The Anatomy of Peace provides the choice between peace and the war that lies within all of us, but it is up to the individual to decide which path to take. The Anatomy of Peace is about relationships; about the relationship each of us have within ourselves and, as a result, with others. Having heart at peace allows one to see the humanity in others, and being able to see humanity in yourself which will create positive relationships (124-125). Having a healthy relationship with another person is an important aspect everyone should incorporate within their lives to have stronger, everlasting connections with others. Heart at peace shows how to replace conflict with cooperation (201). The contrast to heart at peace is heart at war, which incorporates a blaming game. Heart at war doesn't allow for individuls to have an open mind and allows judgement. Relationships cannot be based on judgement and blame; therefore, heart at war is something everyone should avoid. The Anatomy of Peace starts off with parents trying to deal with their troubled teenagers. Yusuf al-Falah, an Arab, and Avi Rozen, a Jew, organized a treatment program for children who are in trouble, and created a workshop for concerned parents. Both al-Falah and Rozen lost their fathers in the Middle East conflict, and each have found healing through one another despite their ethnic rivals. Rozen and al-Falah help warring parents and children to come together by showing them there is a way out of the struggles that may weigh someone down. Lou Herbert, one of the parents attending the workshop because of the trouble his son Cory has recently gotten into is not in agreement to the ideas of resolving conflict. Although the workshop is intended to help the parents deal with conflict, Mr. Herbert was not as accepting to ideal that the conflict that surrounds his son may include him as well. Herbert explained, "Sorry to speak so plainly, but I'm not here to celebrate my child's achieveme nts. Frankly, I'm royally pissed at him" (12). Although Lou Herbert has every right to be upset, he is not allowing himself to collect the information that the workshop is providing to resolve any underlying conflict. The workshop is very important for the parents because it is allowing the parents to learn about understanding instead of using blame as the key concept in any conflict. al-Falah explains to Herbert that conflict is not just among one person, but consists in all of us, and usually when a conflict is apparent it involves more than one person. Lou Herbert believes his son needs to be fixed in some way-changed, motivated, disciplined, corrected (13). Because Mr. Herbert puts all the blame on his son, and doesn't understand the Pyramid of Change yet, his heart is at war. "When our hearts are at war, we not only invite failure, we invest in it" (38). The Pyramid of Change is a guide for those who want to follow a series of levels in order to build strong relationships with others. This pyramid prompts individuals to look for solutions to a problem at a deeper level because conflicts can be complicated, but there are multiple ways to solve a problem; one must be able to find different ways to defuse a conflict/problem.. At the top of the Pyramid of Change it begins with correct, then downwards to teach and communicate, listen and learn about the person's world, build the relationship, build relationships with others who have influence on the person, and finally get out of the box/obtain a heart at peace (211). The Pyramid of Change is effective because the solution to a problem at one level of the pyramid is always below that level of the pyramid (215). Changing involves dedication and corporation among anyone who is involved with a conflict,