As the staff is passed around our story emerges in a way that it never could through a single person. We were presented questions which Elizabeth had drawn from meditations and dialogues with council members during the year. They addressed issues of both a personal and collective nature. The question on the urge to kill brought up varying and powerful responses during the council and afterwards, and raised more questions than created answers. We can't in any way do justice to the totality of the issue here, but we might share some of the thoughts that came up.
Death is necessary for the continuation of life.
In honestly looking at ourselves, we all admitted that we had some kind of destructive tendency within us, such as smoking, biting finger nails, over-eating, illness, alienation, gossip or anger. These are all in some way expressions of the urge to kill. On a global scale, it is so easy for those of us not directly taking part in exploitation and war to call for peace. Later in the week, during the men's council, a dream was shared that was very connected with the issue of the urge to kill. The dreamer saw himself with a large staff coming to meet another man.