Dealing with Hatred

I have just completed my reading of Laura Hillebrand's book, Unbroken, and find that it addresses the issue of dealing with hatred in fine fashion. It relates Louis Zamperini's long, hard battle toward transformation from the hatred of one particular Japanese captor that held him bound.

His story, though formed in and through World War II, is our story. There are unwelcome people, might I even say many, who float into our lives and disturb our equilibrium. Their thoughts, ideas, issues, lifestyle, or whatever beat us into frames of mind that cause pain. Ultimately, if we give them power, we allow them to control us. Hatred, in its many forms, emerges.

Zamperini tried to deal with his hatred by drinking it away. That was an exercise in futility. Hatred cannot be relegated to a place of denial or avoidance. Nor can it be ignored in the hopes that it will go away. My view is that hatred is enslavement and we need to recognize and address the bondage in a positive manner. We have to grow in awareness that the hatred is consuming us, eating at us and causing us to gnaw at each other. The anger that comes with and from hatred houses a lurking evil, as Hillebrand phrases it, "a nameless uneasiness." It blinds us to the beauty surrounding us, the beauty within us, the miracle that is life.

How do we deal with it? We simply, not simplistically or facilely or easily, let it go. Let it go and let peace enter.