Which Way to Peace?
Course Participant: Dubravka Kalac (Zadar, Croatia)
Sometimes, when I walk the streets of my city, late in the evening, when there's only silence present, pictures of not so distant past strike me, and I wonder: is it possible that the War used to walk these same streets? Then the boxes of my memory open, and take me deep inside, to where I think was impossible to dwell. Facing the past, this is how it's called, a painful past, difficult to the extent that one doesn't know what to do with it, other than erase it, delete it, bury it. The strategy proves to be the wrong one, there's no way you can avoid to face it over and over again, in reality, in dreams. Sometimes it feels as if it happened in some other life, to some other person, because it sounds more like a scenario of a film, and you don't think you could have ever possibly played a role in it. But one thing I know, I wouldn't be able to go through the same scenario once again. What would I do if another war breaks out? Would I try to hide? But where would I hide in this world so unsafe and full of violence? Is there peace anywhere? Again, the strategy proves to be the wrong one. And I face myself with another question, is there any alternative, any possibility of change, of feeling safe and secure, with no worries, fears of another bloodshed, but without having to escape, hide?
