If the blood spilled on Kibbutz Be’eri, where hundreds were massacred on Oct 7 could speak, would it cry out in Hebrew for vengeance? Would the children crushed by concrete in Gaza demand retaliation in Arabic? Both screaming from their graves for more devastation and destruction?

I think not. I choose to believe that from the beyond, the false divisions of humanity melt away.

Vivian Silver devoted her life to justice. She ferried Gazan children to dialysis appointments in Israel and founded “Women Waging Peace” dedicated to the liberation of Palestinians. Tragically, she met a brutal, sadistic death on Be’eri at the hands of the very people she sought to help liberate.

Yet her funeral was described as a vision of something never seen in Israel/Palestine. There were Arabs and Jews, religious and secular, right and left. Men with kipot, and teenagers in tie–dye. Friends wrote that this was Vivian’s vision of what is possible if we lead with love. The friends call it “Vivianism.”

The book the “Life of Pi” tells two opposing narratives describing the same series of events. In one there is love and magic, in the other death and destruction. The author asks, “Which story do you choose?” I choose Vivianism.

And the voice of the murdered calls forth from the Earth, “Not for my sake, violence. For my sake, love.”

My kids are Jewish college seniors at radical liberal campuses. My daughter says, “I can’t condone another child bombed in Gaza. I’ve gone to cease-fire protests, but it hurts to hear friends chant ‘From the river to the sea we will be free’ when Hamas uses that slogan in their charter that calls for the destruction of Israel and my people. But then I can’t go to the pro-Israel marches either when they justify the murder of innocents in Gaza. It’s not either/or! Why can’t we honor each other’s humanity? I need to start my own movement.”

Yes, you do.

Yet maybe you can join the group ”Standing Together,” which is co-lead by Palestinian and Jewish Israelis. Their mission is to create a new reality where everyone lives in peace and prosperity. Israeli Alon-Lee Green says, “No one is going anywhere. We are all here and we will live together or die together.” Palestinian Sally Abed, gave me my new true north in her approach to this conflict. People are fighting over words like genocide, apartheid, Zionism. Parsing, advocating for definitions that support their theory of the truth. Sally says, “Ask yourself: is this language contributing to polarization and demonization, or healing and building bridges? If it is polarizing, you are hurting us.” Don’t do it.

Her moral clarity: powerful.

These young people are not Pollyanna. They are hard realists. Their message, “You want security, the only way forward is together.” They know that the current leadership on both sides is a million miles away from their position. And that all rational indicators point to the opposite.

Yet the respect and love between colleagues Sally and Alon-Lee is palpable despite the enmity of so many of their countrymen. And there is Vivianism, inspired by a woman who created a miracle in her death: a manifestation of the world Standing Together is working to create.

“These are young people your age,” I tell my kids. They are working beyond the polarization on campus. On the frontlines of this conflict, they are showing us another way.

A day ago I was in despair, looking at the hatred-fueled disaster of Hamas and Netanyahu. The impossibility of it all. Yet Alon-Lee and Sally’s invitation for us to support them, has given me a new focus. There is a glimmer of a future where humanity prevails.

Think of Harvey Milk, murdered for being gay. Looking ahead, could he have ever imagined gay marriage? Or Mandela in the bowels of Robben Island, could he have seen himself as president? Could the dreaming MLK possibly envision a President Obama?

There’s a story of a cynic who says, “Why should I plant dates? They take a hundred years to bear fruit. I will never taste their sweetness!” And a sage replies, “They are not for you to enjoy, but for your children’s children. Plant dates.”

Maybe working with Standing Together is like this. Maybe the healing they envision comes in some distant future long after we’re gone. But if the choice is surrendering to the darkness, or planting a seed that I may never see yield fruit? I choose to plant dates.

Sara Schley lives in Wendell.