overheard

Jayber Crow, the protagonist of Wendell Berry’s excellent book by the same name,

In Wendell Berry’s excellent, Jayber Crow the protagonist offers his thoughts on the “new” war, which in his context was WWII. I found Jayber’s thoughts quite interesting and think that they have something to say to us as we face another undeclared, yet undoubtedly “new,” kind of war.

“I knew that this new war was not even new but was only the old one come again. And what caused it? It was caused, I thought, by people failing to love one another, failing to love their enemies. I was glad enough that I had not become a preacher, and so would not have to go through a war pretending that Jesus had not told us to love our enemies.

The thought of loving your enemies is opposite to war. You don’t have to do it; you don’t have to love one another. All you have to do is keep the thought in mind and Port William (J’s hometown) becomes visible, and you see its faces and you know what it has to lose. Maybe you don’t have to love your enemies. Maybe you just have to act like you do. And maybe you have to start early (pg. 142).”