Kabul in the news

Hello all...

As many of you may have read, there was a bomb today outside of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The numbers will change, but as of now the reports say 40 died and 100+ were wounded. This entry will be brief, but I wanted you to know that I was home and safe when the explosion occurred.

To be honest, this has not been an encouraging week. The violent deaths experienced (primarily by Afghans) far extend "terrorist" bombs which reach headline news. Just yesterday, an American air strike killed 27 civilians attending a wedding party in Nangahar, a majority of which were women and children. The bride was among the victims.

Comparing deaths and pain is never particularly helpful, and is definitely not my point. But these horrible tragedies do make me wonder that we need to think more creatively about peace in Afghanistan. These issues are difficult and it is easy to point fingers and declare "right and wrong" and proclaim "evil" versus "good." In Afghanistan, the lines are not clear. When talking about peace, a favorite writer of mine Thomas Merton requests the individual first to discover our own tendencies toward evil and destruction and recognize the confusion in that process before racing out to blame and chose evil around us.

When an Afghan friend of mine Cobra heard the news she ran out to me, eyes welled with tears and cried, "This is not my Afghanistan. No, this is not good." My guess is she has been searching for her Afghanistan for a long time. I hope to search for this for her as well, in the small small ways I can.

Peace to you....

Andrea