Blog: January 2018

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
January 8, 2018

The morning we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, two of our students, who also happen to be sisters, were fighting a lot with one another. You know the kind of way siblings fight? It was the kind where they are impatient with one another, and every little thing done or said annoys the other one. Then they realize it annoys the other one, so they dig in to get a greater reaction and laugh about it.

We had just arrived at the Holocaust Museum, probably one of the most somber places in DC, possibly in the whole country. I had briefed students going in about how to carry themselves with respect inside. Well, our two sisters were still caught in their world of petty sibling arguments. I told one of them to chill out and back off. I was getting fed up with them at this point. This really just made her more upset- now both at me and at her sister. The rest of the museum visit, the two avoided each other, and the one I spoke harshly to avoided me.

After walking through the museum, which still strikes me to the heart every time (even after my fifth visit) we headed to lunch to decompress a bit. The two sisters sat kind of near me towards the end of the table, along with Yasiria, a sophomore student on our Student Leadership team. I could tell they were still bickering about something, but this time I overheard Yasiria interjecting. When I listened closer, I discovered she was giving them advice on how to work through whatever argument was going on. She spent the next 20 minutes or so actually counseling them through things! And they listened!

The rest of the day, I didn't hear a single dispute between the two. I was so impressed with Yasiria; she has a heart of gold and always leads the group by example, showing compassion and kindness along the way. Earlier on our expedition, we walked through the Martin Luther King Jr. monument. On the monument walls, there was a quote that said,

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -MLK

I was struck by the way Yasiria handled things in that instance. She did a much better job at showing love and patience than I did! We had just walked through a memorial showing the world what happens when we let darkness and hate take the reins, but in the end, it's purpose was to show how light prevailed, and how we have a choice everyday how to respond to our world. Yasiria that day chose light, and it drove out the darkness. She chose love, and it bridged a gap between two sisters. I call that a victory.

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