Context

This is what happens when I forget to bring my knitting to a staff meeting

Last Saturday, I don't think I left our apartment complex. I had found an old, worn-out basketball court behind the utility shed and community vegetable garden that I thought would be ideal for sidewalk chalk - and it was! The kids and I drew rainbows and zucchinis and traced outlines of things and ourselves, played line tag and splashed in puddles. It started to rain and by afternoon all traces of our play time there were gone.

The next day I saw the messages and news items about all the crazy political stuff going on right now - the right-wing backlash to the current peace negotiations. Seriously, WHO stands up and says they're against peace???!?

Well... there are those who benefit from the conflict, frankly, so I suppose it really shouldn't be all that shocking.

But it's sad.

There's a sign I walk by on the way home from work, "future site of the museum of peace," with a picture of two dark Afro-colombian hands holding each other, and a beatifically smiling grandmother holding a red rose. I think it is ridiculous. It sentimentalizes peace. Peace-building work, after decades of armed conflict, is not a feel-good proposition. Dealing with the memories of all that pain, the processes of truth and reconciliation, will be extremely hard.

There are signs and graffitis for peace all over the city. I understand the fatigue and how tired people are of the conflict and the heavy toll it has taken on this country. It's hard to see those calls for peace being answered with increased and further violence.