I remember being in Mr. Petras’ high school World History class. Now if you ever went to Pierson High School back in the day, Mr. Petras is someone you’d never forget. He was teaching us while in front of a political map of the world which outlined all of the countries that we have chopped this beautiful earth into. I remember distinctly raising my hand and asking, ‘why do we need these borders? Why can’t we all just get along?’ I imagine he laughed and said something on the order of ‘take off those rose-colored glasses Remkus’ or ‘that’s what you call an idealist.’ But I could just picture the world as one beautiful place to roam and be a part of-no lines, no borders, no conflict- everyone just helping each other- one big happy earth family. Paradise.

Of course, each border has also brought beautiful things-its own culture- language, food, music, art. Amazing how all of that came to be.

We have learned and even lived through many of the world’s conflicts -the death, the despair, the destruction-the casualties, the lives snuffed out, the beautiful buildings, art, artifacts and pieces of history blown into bits of rubble.

When I taught kindergarten, we reinforced all of the good things learned at home-be kind, make sure you have a Valentine card for everyone in the class, if your pal lost his blue crayon-lend him yours, take turns at the sand table, don’t ever cut the line, if you play with blocks put them away, clean up after snack time, if you have an extra chocolate chip cookie be sure to give it to your teacher. Conflicts were handled with conversation. Beautiful stories were read that focused on taking care of each other and the earth-respecting and celebrating our differences. We started every day with song, we focused on character, kindness was paramount.

What has happened to our world? Have they forgotten what they learned in kindergarten? It is so hard, I believe, for any human to watch this terror and try to make any sense of it. Where do we store it inside of our psyche? Homes, lives, babies, buildings, such utter destruction of the gift of life, such complete disregard for humanity.

I have wondered about the yin and yang of life. Does it include equal parts of good and evil, love and hate, war and peace-and no matter how hard we fight for one-will the other always exist? Is that a truth that we can accept and live with or will we forever work towards the hope for world peace? Is it attainable? I guess our goal would be to always err on the side of good-to try and tip the balance ever so slightly on any given day.

To be human is to be horrified at what we are witnessing-nothing less than horrified. I have often been a proponent of a ‘news fast’ but there is no way to turn a blind eye to what is happening in our world. Oh, here I am sipping my chamomile tea while folks are living in terror, buildings blown to smithereens, lives forever taken or changed.

I know - you know. I know it is the last thing you want to hear from me on a Sunday morning blog. But it is a good day to wake up and pray for peace-however it is you pray. Act for peace-do what you can for peace. Shalom, мир, Vrede, Patz, سلام, Lapè, Hacaña, Мир , শান্তি , ཞི་བདེ and a hundred more ways to ask, to pray, to meditate, to act- for the same thing-Peace!

Simply Peace