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Allow the Water: Anger, Fear, Power, Work, Sexuality and Practice of Non Violence

by Leonard Desroches

496 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-2446; ISBN 1-4120-1968-0; US$38.50, C$43.83, EUR31.50, £22.00

Anger, fear, power, work, sexuality, community - and the spirituality and practice of nonviolence

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Allow the Water combines an introduction to nonviolence with a deeper exploration into some of its dimensions. Though its style is mainly that of storytelling, there are also as many helpful references as possible. The book is 500 pages long, but photos and drawings make up almost half the volume. This is an exploration of the spirituality and practice of the force of love we inadequately call "nonviolence." Nonviolence is people and their stories before it is idea - a way of living and acting, not just a way of thinking. This book is one contribution to an urgently needed conversation. It is not meant to be "complete." There are questions, observations and convictions. Hopefully, in their thoroughness and simplicity, the contribute to our common search.

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About the Author Leonard Deroches is a resource person for training sessions in active nonviolence for: farmers, prisoners, strikers; Mohawks from Kanewake and Kahnasatake in preparation for two major pow wows after the Oka Crisis; PBI's and CPT's work in Chiapas, Haiti, Palestine and Burnt Church (New Brunswick). He has authored two books on non-violence: Allow the Water and Laisser Jaillir; and numerous articles on active nonviolence. He is a teacher of courses on nonviolence as part of the University of Toronto's Continuing Education Program. A founder of the former Bread and Roses Credit Union, a credit union for social justice groups. A founder of the following collectives: - the former Clearlake Collective, a workers collective doing house repairs - the former Cruise Missile Conversation Project which focused on Litton Systems Ltd., a US subsidiary which built parts for US weapons of mass destruction He has searched for clues of active nonviolence in places of conflict, such as Palestine, Israel, Nicaragua, Kanasetake, Kahnawake and in Canadian prisons (as a consequence of arrests for acts of resistance to Canadian militarism). His wage earning trade is drywalling, the "Featheredge Drywalling" company. Leonard was born in Penetanguishene of Franco-Ontarian parents and has been living in Toronto for many years.

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Excerpts

Nonviolence As A Way of LIfe

The topics in this book are not new. I have simply tried to explore them in the very particular context of "nonviolence." Let's look at this word "nonviolence": it is fundamentally inadequate to express what is in reality a positive and active force of truth and love in our daily lives and in our resistance to injustice and violence. Hopefully, throughout the text some contributions are made in naming more fully what we have come to know commonly as "nonviolence" - this way of resolving conflicts, of resisting injustice and great evil and of creating alternatives. I believe that in nonviolence love of earth and love of enemy are inextricably intertwined.

Power, Fear, Anger, Work, and Sexuality

Along with power, anger, fear, community, imagination and beauty, two other dimensions of our lives are continuously woven into the text: work and sexuality. Why? Even though work (or the lack of it) and sexuality (healthy or wounded) constantly affect our lives, we rarely talk directly and plainly about them. Yes, we babble a lot about sex and jobs - babble in the sense of "talking excessively," as the dictionary puts it. All round us, in our newspapers, on the radio and television, "sexy" ads babble about "sexy" cars - or a thousand other products; newspapers advertize phone sex babble. And work? It's "jobs" and "careers" we babble about - as incessantly as sex. The streetcar ads babble about the army as being simply a career. If nonviolence is not engaged in the often complex and painful struggles of sexuality and work, it is not engaged at the most primal and consistent level of people's lives - as individuals, as a culture and as a faith community. We all have a small part of the collective sexual wisdom needed for healing and celebration. Each small part is vital: my story, your story, our story.

My hope is to contribute to that effort which seeks to fashion an everyday culture of nonviolence, such that resistance to war is simply a consequence of such a lived reality.

Hitler, Gandhi, and the Sixties

One of the most frequent ways that I have observed people trivializing nonviolence has been with statements such as: "Oh, yeah, nonviolence - Gandhi and the sixties. Think it's great, but it never would have worked against Hitler." Because I have heard this used so often as a way to not take nonviolence too seriously, I have, first of all, repeatedly pointed to instances in the history of nonviolence resistance to the Nazi's; also, I have barely referred to Gandhi; and as far "nonviolence and the sixties," I have gone far back into the 12th century, to Francis of Assisi - taken him out of the birdbath and onto the streets with us - to reveal what you might find is a stunning example of what we now call "nonviolence."

The Spirituality of Nonviolence: A Special Invitation and Challenge

A few years ago, while in Isreal and Palestine meeting with Jews and Palestinians who were involved with nonviolence, I entered into a conversation with a Rabbi. Jew and Christian, we probed the spirituality behind nonviolence. He said to me: "You have uncovered resources in my own spirituality I didn't realize existed." Neither of us had the least interest in "convincing" - let alone converting. We both believed it was possible to be intellectually honest about our own faith experiences and to learn from each other.

On my part I will continue to learn from all the well-known prophets of nonviolence (Abraham Heschel, Badshah Khan, Gandhi, Tich Nat Hahn), as well as the lesser-known ones (especially women- such as Hien Luong, Vietnamese poet, imprisoned in Con Son Island in 1969; Rokeya Sakawat Hossein, Bengali Muslim author who proposed reverse "purdah" [exclusion of women from public religious observations]; Miriam Makeba, exiled in 1959 from South Africa for singing freedom songs in resistance to apartheid; Kusunose Kita, Japan's "Grandmother of Popular Rights"; Mila Aguilar, Filippio poet imprisoned by Marcos dictatorship; Azucena De Vicenti, rallied the Mothers of the Plaza in Argentine and became one of the "disappeared" in 1977).

Not Complete, but Thorough

This is one contribution to an urgently needed conversation. It is not meant to be "complete." There are questions, observations and convictions. Hopefully, in their thoroughness and simplicity, they contribute to our common search.

Welcome. Join in the conversation and exploration.

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Catalogue Information

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