The tragedy in Paris on Friday outlines the situation when a group wants no part of speech, except credit for violent acts. They cannot be negotiated with, because there is nothing they want. Their suicide mission people know they will die, and their purpose is to kill as many innocent people as possible. They don't want anything. Mass suffering is their message. Diplomacy doesn't enter into the picture, and neither does hope or a future. When we have no speech we have no ability to connect with the other.
I notice that a graphic of the peace sign with the effiel tower in the center is better speech for those mourning, but even that symbol means nothing to Isis. Closed off from hearing or seeing anything by the claustrophobia of the hidden life of the cell, these young men are beyond speech. They have listened to a promise and then closed their ears, eyes and hearts to any other point of view. The despair they must experience to enter that state is devastating to imagine.
Our despair is the sudden, seeming randomness of these attacks. How does one prepare? You cannot. You go on living your life in affirmation. You treasure the gift of life, however long it lasts. Perhaps we all have the impulse to speak words of love and gratitude even more frequently. We speak for those silenced and those who have moved beyond speech into the eclipse of the soul.
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