Photo: Thinkstock

My family is famous for keeping grudges. There is one lady to whom I am related (I won't mention names for fear of getting on her wrong side for the next FOREVER) who didn't speak to her brother-in-law for some 60-odd years after a perceived sleight having to do with whose turn it was to use a bathroom. And they worked together. Right next to each other. I'm sorry to say, I seem to have inherited this knack for simmering anger slowly, completely, stewily, the way a crockpot cooks beef. It's a habit I'd like to give up. But how?

Spencer Tunick is an artist known for his photographs of large groups of nude people, and his latest project, a gathering of over 1000 people in Israel's Dead Sea, has an extra twist. Five Israeli students asked Tunick (via Facebook, of course), to create an installations/photo series in the name of peace. "The idea is simple: If we're naked then we are, most likely, unarmed." The students wanted to metaphorically lay down their swords and show the world a different side of their country. (More photos here at the Huffington Post but be warned, the naked people are naked.)

These brave (and from the looks of  the photos, maybe a bit chilly) people have found a beautiful way to call attention to a movement of pacifism in a notoriously militaristic part of the world. Makes you think, doesn't it? If people are willing to put aside generations of strife, can't we put aside our petty little issues?

How to let go of anger:
Learning (and teaching) forgiveness
8 ways to forgive and forget