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                               %ESSENCE OF VIOLENCE 840603

     The  essence  of  violence is the  violation  of  the
integrity  of that person,  creature,  or thing  which  is
violated.    Through violence that which was whole becomes
less  whole,  less integrated,  less inter-connected  both
internally   and  externally.    Thus  violence  occasions
alienation and guilt.

     The person who is guilty of violence thereby  becomes
less  whole  and so also experiences the  consequences  of
violence  as a reduction of integrity.   Violence is a two
edged  sword  which violates the integrity of the  violent
one as well as of the victim.

     A person can not be whole,  have integrity,   without
freedom  of  choice.   To be a whole person  involves  the
freedom   to   freely  consider  and  chose   from   among
alternatives.    To be deprived of that freedom to  freely
consider  and  chose  is to be violated.    To  have  that
freedom  expanded  is to be loved.   To learn  to  promote
integrity  through the experiences of such love is to grow
in  wisdom.   To learn to engage in violence through  such
freedom is to be damned.

     To   reduce  violence  people  should  pray  for  the
integration  of  personal  and communal  integrity.    The
essence  of  prayer is the search for a union of  personal
and communal integrity.   Communal prayer is an  essential
part of the search for personal integrity.   All prayer is
an  essential  part for the union of the personal and  the
communal search.

     If  any important aspect of private and communal life
is  ignored  in  the  private  and  communal  search   for
integrity,  then that search is incomplete and still lacks
integrity,  completion.  Thus prayer is the search for the
way to integrate all of life into prayer in the way  which
Love  reduces violence through the integration of  all  of
life into a meaningful whole.

     Those  who  seek through prayer to integrate  do  not
seek to control others to achieve integration.   Ownership
and control are not integrative, part of Love.  Taboos are
not  enforced  through alienation by  lovers  praying  for
integration.
                         (c) 1997 by Paul A. Smith in
                      "Search for Integrity and Honesty"
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)

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