While wandering Europe for more than 2 months, one truth echoes over and over – history is told by the victors. The victors are usually those who had the best war machines and/or population to outlast the identified ‘enemy.’ That enemy often was of a different religion, tribe or simply, they occupied the land others coveted. Maybe it was the high ground. Or a port city. Or confusingly, maybe it was an identified ‘holy’ site.

This stark and painful truth has begun shouting again in the Middle East. The Middle East has a vast history of art, triumph, dictatorship, pilgrimage, literature, religion, architecture and more. I couldn’t begin to make sense of it all as I am unfamiliar with so much. Yet, the same eternal truth vibrates through the events – history is told by the victors. Foolishly, we think we know who the victors are. Who the bad guys are. Who the good guys are…but that is a lie. For once the bullets fly, humanity becomes muddy. Fear and ‘it’s my right!’ drive decisions. Innocents are lost on all sides.

How do I know this? Oh, my ancestors tell me so…the ones who landed on Plymouth Rock and rolled the Native Americans out of their way. Or perhaps it was in the whispers of my Irish great-grandparents who lived under the cruel thumb of British rule. Or ones who were advisers to the French monarchy in the 1700s. Maybe it was the Catholic Church in Ireland where some of my Irish aunties were ‘sent away to home’ for the sin of unwed pregnancy and never left. Unmarked graves off to the side. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? It’s blurry.

When one wanders the past of our roots, it becomes confusing. Stories of good guys and bad guys get lost in the telling. Each of us vibrates with triumph and villainy in our blood. Finding a place within ourselves to hold these conflicting truths is the path to wholeness. Depending on the day, All is true, painful and glorious.

‘And’ is important. ‘And’ keeps us humble. ‘And’ allows the space for truth to will out through art. Through deeds. Through time. Through story.