“While we were climbing the stairway, an owl with a mouse in its claws fluttered its wings towards a cypress tree. Life was suddenly over for the little rodent. This is life! It is based upon violence. Without killing, carnivores cannot survive. The fish in the sea must eat the small ones not to make the oceans depopulated. The eagles in the sky must bring some small animals to their nests; otherwise, their species would become extinct. There is a fragile balance in nature. The life of one being needs the death of another being. Once a Jehovah’s Witness said to me that it will come a time on Earth when lions will live together with lambs peacefully, there will be no death, diseases, and violence. When will this time come? Surely, not in a world like that in which we are living now. It would be another Earth.

What about humans’ violence? There was a great philosopher, called Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who considered war unavoidable. Was it right?  I can just say that wars have never ceased since the beginning of the world. Man kills like animals. There is not much of a difference between animals’ violence and men’s violence. Both of them kill not only to survive, but also to protect their territories, because of hate, jealousy, and even for the sake of killing.

At the end of the stairway, we turned left and arrived at my tomb. An epitaph was engraved above the altar:

                        I cannot force others to open their hearts.

                        I can just open mine first.

                        Then, I will knock on another heart’s door,

                        With the light of my love.

                        Naturally, the door will open.

                        If I can open one heart,

                        That heart will be able to open another heart.

                        More and more hearts will open

                        As ripples spread out from where a stone has fallen.

                        The landscape of life on Earth will change.

                        No more violence, war, and hatred.

                        Love will shine on our life.”

This is an excerpt from November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

Ettore Grillo author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

– A Hidden Sicilian History

– The Vibrations of Words

– Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo