The perpetration of violence, more than anything else, requires a deep, implicit belief that desired change can be achieved independently of the web of relationships. Breaking violence requires that people embrace a more fundamental truth: Who we have been, are, and will be emerges and shapes itself in a context of relational interdependency.

This is the essence of nonpolarity. Peripheral vision does not frame the process or the decisions exclusively in terms of either-or choices. It holds connections and choices within a wider frame. When one avenue offers resistance, peripheral vision does not counterpush against the resistance. It sidesteps, locates other avenues, and watches for

Theory is not writing perfectly defined but intangible explanations of social realities. It is about the common sense of how things are connected, how they influence each other, and how they may relate to desired change. Theory is our best speculation about how complex things work.

Approaching social change with awe and humility opens the way for the moral imagination. Social change without awe, struggle, and humility quickly becomes an exercise in engineering.

I was in for a complete surprise. Rather than being a personal diversion to feed my spirit, which is what I thought I was doing on sabbatical, poetry became a pathway to peacebuilding. In my classes and teaching, usually at some point when we are all feeling overwhelmed with the complexity of studying a seemingly impossible violent conflict, I go to