September 21 is being celebrated as the International Day of Peace. Since I attended a meeting of NGO's to discuss how to bring awareness of IDP to the world at the UN last May, I have been spending serious moments considering peace.
Here is the short video I made to acknowledge the day.
The vocalist is Derek Stroh. I think he brings a genuine sensitivity to Imagine. Tony Woodroffe, a great friend with tremendous heart and tremendous talent, works with Derek and suggested I create the video.
Now I will share with you some of my challenging thoughts on the Paradox of Peace.
Maybe it is my personality or the years I have spent working as a counselor, speaker, writer and workshop facilitator in the realm of personal awareness and development but I found myself questioning the major gesture of this Day of Peace. The gesture felt more like having a party for peace rather than participating in peace. The gesture felt comfortably intellectual and not uncomfortably intimate. The planners, who were heart felt and passionate, were focussed on inter - NATION -al peace and inter - GROUP activities rather than inter - PERSONAL development of a consciousness of peace, a feeling for peace and a will to peace.
What is peace?
Can there be peace among nations, among groups, if there is no peace within souls?
I have the feeling that the meaning of peace in the International Day of Peace is simply the opposite of war. No more war is a good thing. But just military war between nations? What about verbal war between persons, between lovers?
I think Peace is so much more than the absence of war. I feel peace is a complex language that none of us yet knows how to speak. Or maybe we know the language but lack the courage to speak it.
How do we learn the language of peace and find the courage to speak it?
When in your life have you felt inner peace? Was it merely the absence of inner war or was it more?
Do you have any peaceful relationships? What is a peaceful relationship? Is it a relationship without little wars?
Could you name and define four qualities of peace? Not qualities in the abstract, but qualities you and each of us can develop in order to be at peace.
Can we create and sustain peace and still feel we and our beliefs and behaviors are the only right ones? Can peace contain differences and disagreements?
Can we create and sustain peace and still maintain boundaries? After all each of us has skin defining where “my” territory is.
And if we had peace, what would we do for entertainment? So much of entertainment is dependent on the absence of peace, truth and kindness. There was a great suggestion that for International Day of Peace all media withdraw any programming that contained violence! Imagine that! Could we ask newspapers and blogs to do the same? could we ask Netflix and video stores to not rent videos containing violence for just one day? Could we ask those who play video games to not play?
There are so many aspects of our lives and our economies that depend on the absence of peace. Just think about it.
Would peace be boring? I know enough about neurochemistry to know that risk, uncertainty and threat are arousing and give us a feeling of being intensely alive. I also know that love, belief, and passion generate levels of commitment and a willingness to defend until death. Can we have peace and still have great love, great belief and great passion?
I do hope I have stimulated your thinking about peace. Please spend some of September 21, the International Day of Peace, thinking deeply about peace. Please, too, share your thoughts here on the blog.
Think peace. Find peace. Create peace. Sustain peace.
Engage peacefully. React peacefully. Love peacefully.
3 comments:
Think Peace. Hmmm. Your musings are intriguing. I came to your blog as a friend of Tony Woodruffe's. He recommended I check out the video with his music. I am a professor of anthropology and music and a singer-songwriter.
I was left with a persistent concern from the visual images in the video as a person of color. Note: I am teaching a course about YouTube videos and have been inquiring into media literacy this last week. (see first 3 mins of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzeVjAM-drg)
The images imply a very white peopled world reaching out to "Others". It seems to represent a world populated by peaceful white folks leading the movement. This is my view as a black woman and I am always struck by how often we miss the mediated message in video and we spend so much more time choosing the right words. I love the intention of your video, but it would be so much more effective if the images were more inclusive of not only US oriented images of white people at peace and included images from other countries and nationalities. Our intention is always coming from a great place, but it is only through the pull and tussle of including others in the production of our messages not just the reception of them that we begin to get at true peace. What matters to me is that all people have the freedom to fully embrace and empower any commmunication eye to eye with the remarkable oneness of humanity.
I lead a workshop that is intended towards the same outcome of peace but from a different angle let's say. It's called AGREE TO BE OFFENDED (http://knowledgecrush.com).
With all this said, I fully embrace your cause, the video, and your commitment to empowering peace and I wish you and the world well today and everyday. I also embrace the paradox of peace in my workshop Agree to be Offended. Please visit our website to learn more.
THanks, Kyra Gaunt
Kyra,
thank you so much for your thoughtful comment.
I, too, was troubled by the "euro-whiteness" of the images. It was very frustrating for me to put this together. I searched istockphoto.com for the images looking primarily for mood and gesture relating to the lyrics. Diversity and a real presentation of one out of many was difficult to achieve in less than twenty seven images.
I found a beautiful picture of a black woman and her mother but it didn't fit the meaning of the lyrics the way another photo did. I also struggled with the "Americanization" of the message.
Ultimately, given the limitations of time to search for images and the availability of images that fit the project, I had to go with the hope that the feeling in the visual message was going to overcome the social/visual shortcomings.
When does our humanity, our souls, become the central expression of self, taking us beyond our visual prejudices? When we meet, and I hope we do, will we meet with the prejudices of what we have in common or what is not shared? Will my white skin offend you? Will you be interested in the painful ways I have been marginalized?
Lots of questions leading to more questions. Basically, it is time for a new language and a new conversation about humankind. but who knows the new language and where do we meet to have new conversations? Youtube?
Well, look we met through your blog and ordinarily in the past I would have kept my thoughts to myself and other people of color. But that doesn't work for me anymore. It's gotta be full expression, peaceful, passionate and loving and committed to being...eye to eye with our remarkable oneness. There, in my opinion, is no need for new language. Our language works, our vision may blind us to our connectedness, but it is through language that we can tranform and connect.
By the way, Tony recommended you I believe to me. I think he gave me your card Sun and suggested I reach out to you. I remember live in full bloom on the card. So I'll be in touch. Best, Kyra
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