By Jane Bauer

“Oaxaca lo tiene todo: historia, geografía, arte, cultura y, sobre todo, alma.”
“Oaxaca has everything: history, geography, art, culture, and above all, soul.”

Andrés Henestrosa (1906–2008) was a Mexican writer, poet, and politician from Oaxaca, known for his work in preserving and promoting Zapotec culture and language. In addition to his contributions to indigenous linguistics, he was widely respected for his humanitarian work and lifelong commitment to education and cultural inclusion.

I love when two unrelated events cross paths and open a new window of thought. As I sat hunkered down in Huatulco, watching heavy rains fill normally dry canals, and reading the usual online buzz of neighbors checking in and sharing photos of Hurricane Erick, I came across a headline: the U.S. had bombed Iran.

And it struck me – this strange parallel between the violence of nature and the violence of humanity.

The storm had a rhythm. The wind shook the trees, the water rose, the power blinked. But nature’s violence, even in its ferocity, seemed to have a purpose. I came across an article listing the benefits of hurricanes—how they redistribute heat from the tropics, bring rainfall to dry areas, churn the oceans and shake up stagnation. Nature’s destruction has intention. It clears paths. It forces growth. It renews.

But what is the purpose of our violence?
Bombs don’t bring rain. They don’t shift tectonic plates in a way that nourishes. They don’t rebalance ecosystems. They just kill. They divide. They reinforce walls that were never there in the natural world—Democrat, conservative, Palestinian, Israeli, Muslim, Jew, Christian. So many labels. So many reasons to separate. So many flags we wave while our homes flood and our forests burn.

Nature’s violence may be terrifying, but it’s not senseless.
Ours usually is. What would it look like to just be? To step away from the performance of identity and instead be guided by one simple principle to do the least amount of harm. To each other. To ourselves. To the planet.

That kind of thinking doesn’t fit easily into a political agenda, especially when war is more profitable than peace and we have had it drummed into us that amassing money, points, clothes made by little hands in developing countries far away, is the point of all this. But that is a lie.

This month our readers explore the regions of Oaxaca reflecting on their beauty and diversity. I am so grateful to the people here who don’t need a crisis to be reminded of what matters. History has never been peaceful, maybe it’s time to try something different.