Enmity shapes our consciousness and identity. The people we hate haunt us; they inhabit our minds in a negative way, as we brood in a deviant form of meditation on their bad qualities. The enemy thus becomes our twin, a shadow self whom we come to resemble.

Nations may also feel deep antagonism towards people they have wronged and the enemy may become so central to national conscious­ness and identity, that he becomes a second self.

If we want to achieve reconciliation, not only do we have to struggle with the enemy, but we also have to wrestle with ourselves.

And in the struggle, this myth tells us, we may find ourselves blessed and embraced by the presence of something greater.