The White Ribbon
When someone or something hurts us, our tendency is to strike back at it. But this merely perpetuates the problem. What is needed is strength enough to endure the attack. If we meet a friend or lover’s pettiness and hatred with yet more pettiness and hatred, we create a loop in which both parties become trapped. If, however, we deny the impulse to injure, we give ourselves every opportunity to break that loop. Violence feeds on violence. Nature will remain cyclical only so long as we ourselves fail to straighten it out.
