My father was very disappointed by war and fighting. And he thought language could help us out of cycles of revenge and animosity. And so, as a journalist, he always found himself asking lots of questions and trying to gather information. He was always very clear to underscore the fact that Jewish people and Arab people were brother and sister.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the power of language as a tool for understanding and reconciliation in the context of conflict.
Naomi Shihab Nye reflects on her father's disappointment with the destructiveness of war and fighting, advocating for the use of language as a means to break the cycles of revenge and animosity. He believed that through questioning and gathering information, one could foster understanding and recognize the shared humanity between groups often seen as adversaries, emphasizing the brotherhood and sisterhood between Jewish and Arab people.
In practice
During a peace conference, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of dialogue over conflict.
It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in.
I am looking for the human who admits his flaws Who shocks the adversary By being kinder not stronger What would that be like? We don't even know
I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page.
A boy told me if he roller-skated fast enough his loneliness couldn't catch up to him, the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion. What I wonder tonight pedaling hard down King William Street is if it translates to bicycles. A victory! To leave your loneliness panting behind you on some street corner while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas, pink petals that have never felt loneliness, no matter how slowly they fell.
I think whenever you love something or somebody it means that you have to extend yourself, you have to grow - get a little larger. You can't stay in your little comfortable - spot.
As a direct line to human feeling, empathic experience, genuine language and detail, poetry is everything that headline news is not. It takes us inside situations, helps us imagine life from more than one perspective, honors imagery and metaphor - those great tools of thought - and deepens our confidence in a meaningful world.
My love of dynamic complications often led me to avoid simplicity when perhaps it was the wisest choice.
A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness.
Who travels far will often see things Far removed from what was believed as Truth.
The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
The scar will remain, but it is better for a man to lose both arms than his soul; and these hard years, instead of being lost, may be made the most precious of your lives, if they teach you to rule yourselves.
Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.
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