Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (DVD)

The documentary Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire is excellent and certainly presents something valuable for reflection, a look into the life and reflection of Lt. Col. Romeo Dallaire after the Rwanbdan massacres that he was witness to and in which he tried in vain to get the UN to take heed and intervene rather than following the "live and let die" doctrine of the world. They opted for the later.

Something I noticed was his references several time to the inner sanctum of the Rwandans, for all their poverty and simplicity, and to the sacred. Like Raskolnikov, he was brought to a hieghtened awareness of the holy and the conscience through circumstances, though he was not a murderer like Raskolnikov. Now he looks in a sense from the outside at the Western poers and sees them with a critics eye. He accepts the blunt criticisms by Paul Kagame , leader of the Tutsi army that restored peace, of our countries, knowing very well that we did nothing for them and cared nothing for them and that he has no reason to be diplomatic to those who let his people die.

This partially draws on the book by the same name, but it also adds a lot of material and of course, footage.

Peace

Here is a poem I think would be well worth memorizing. Henry Vaughan conveys such a earnest, pressing joyful spiritual vision of intmacy with Christ. I find him convincing like Herbert and Donne, providing the measure of the matter.

Peace

My soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
All skillful in the wars;
There above noise, and danger,
Sweet Peace sits crowned with smiles,
And One born in a mangerCommands the beauteous files.
He is thy gracious Friend,
And (O my soul, awake! )
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake.
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of Peace,
The Rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges,
For none can thee secure
But One, Who never changes,
Thy God, thy life , thy cure.

- Henry Vaughan 1621-1695


See also his "Come, come, what doe I here?" which seems to me to evince an eanest heartfelt English maranatha-ing.