As people have asked me about my trip and how it was- and I respond, "Good, difficult, terrible, wonderful... the Palestinian people are the most beautiful people I have ever met..." I also find myself talking a lot about the separation wall. Partly because it's the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. And to top it off- besides the fact that it creates prisoners out of the Palestinians and blocks them from their own land and farms, the Israelis built the wall past their own borders into Palestinian land and on either side of the wall there is land known as the "seam zone" - all for the sake of "security."
This is a photo of the wall I took in East Jerusalem at Abu-Dis. In the rear of the picture the wall cuts the road right off.
Anyway... in my thinking the last few days the "seam zone" has been juxtaposed to my experiences of forgiveness and relationship. You know, when you're in conflict with someone, often times the person on the defense creates a seam zone in order to be more protected and somehow the one who is seeking reconciliation has to broach that seam zone. And it always seems to me that it's the person who thinks the relationship is more important than the principle of the conflict that broaches the seam zone and seeks an end to the conflict. But it's always a risky thing to do- broach that zone- since the other side is well-defended and appears to operate from a more secure place.
I don't want it to sound as if I'm saying that the Palestinians have to somehow peacefully broach that seam zone (God knows they have tried and some have been shot for it). But, the metaphor gives me a better understanding of relationship and how to give a little.
For the other thing about walls is: they all fall. They can't last forever- so they can and will be breached (even peacefully to bring about reconciliation).
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