Blessed are the Peacemakers

Since I have been meditating lately on the Beattitudes, perhaps God decided to test me on a point or two.

Last night, I was returning home from B&Q with the family. I was in the front seat of the taxi, the family safely tucked away in the rear. As we stopped at a red light, the driver of the taxi in front of ours, got out of his car and began to yell at two men in an adjacent black car. After a few seconds, the occupants had had enough jawing and they jumped out of their car and began to pound the 50-year old taxi driver.

The sight of this prompted my dear wife to exclaim, "Honey!" Which in our marriage, means "Do something!" I exited the taxi and ran to pull the biggest beater-downer away from the taxi-driver. I put myself in the middle of the fracas and fore-armed the biggie and pushed the taxi driver back.

In my best adrenaline-induced, loud, broken Chinese I repeatedly screamed "That's enough!" The main aggressor cooled it and his passenger backed away, content just to offer obscenities. Alas, the taxi driver was not as smart. He held his grip on the big guy's shirt sleeve. As much as I tried to coax him to let go, he wouldn't. Apparently the shirt was made out of Lycra or something similar because (just like in the movies) the entire shirt ripped right off the other man's body! The taxi driver stumbled backward, regained his balance and stood there holding the shirt. The finger popped right out of the hole in the dike. There was no holding back the tides at that point. The two men went right after the driver again!

But almost out of the sky, two policeman appeared and wrestled the men apart. Unfortunately, not before each got in a few parting shots on the hapless driver. When the Calvary arrived, I returned to my taxi and had quite a lively conversation with my own driver on the way home.

After I got home, I thought about the situation long and hard.

We are called to be peacemakers. I think it was good to make peace. Or try.

On the other hand, I have seen in my lifetime a couple dozen fights and have even been in a little scrap or two myself. (Not in 14 years though.) I have watched my share of UFC and other combat-oriented events. Most fights - in fact a huge percentage - end with just a little blood, sore knuckles, a black eye or a cracked rib. Few end in death or dismemberment. Especially in China.

So I was also considering this notion. Is it right for a man to get out of his car, go over to another car and scream and yell? Isn't there part of us, that says, "You know, that's not right."? If I had just let him get wailed on, (as it was, the guys got in a good 8-10 licks), would he ever yell and scream again? I would hope not. Maybe he needed to learn a lesson. 50 is not too old to learn how to behave.

Hopefully, both ends were served. The older taxi driver learned not to confront two men in their thirties by himself and I saved him from a more serious butt-whooping.

In the future (as this type of thing seems more common), I will probably just let the men go at it. However, where there seems to be some gross injustice (like man versus child or woman or old man), I would have to step in. That also is more and more common.

Anyway....interesting night.

I think there is a lot of peacemaking on the horizon.