Everyday Canvas

World Peace

Prompt: We are bloggers, which means we have a platform and a voice. Use today to talk about the cause most important to your heart.

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The cause which is most important to my heart, unfortunately, is an unattainable one, given the human frailties and the mob behavior of the masses. Still, I’d like to write about it because, as hope never dies, if we somehow manage to find it, this planet will be a true heaven on earth. What I am talking about is peace on earth, a phrase which should not remain as only a Christmas jingle.

Wishing for world peace has nothing to do with religion, but it has to do with acceptance and kindness of people toward one another. This can only happen with the practice of non-violence that comes not only from one nation, one group, or one section of the earth but from every nation and every human being, all at the same time.

All at the same time, because if one side acts with kindness and the others gang up on it with all kinds of cruelties, the peace-loving one will be overpowered and vanquished. Neither can a section of people, on an island, separate themselves from the rest of the world and stay untouched. Others will get to them in no time. History shows it.

How can we go about reaching world peace, then? I don't know, but I think it has to start on a personal level. Each one of us must stop being petty and let go of the idea of “What I have, do, or believe in is better than anyone else’s; therefore, it is the best in the world and everyone should practice it.”

We are used to wielding our swords of personal choices and defending ourselves and what we belong to with such passion that anything anyone says or does irks us and makes us attack that person. Feeling irked may be unavoidable, but acting on it is not; therefore, the first thing to do is not to act on our annoyances unless our life is threatened.

If we can achieve this, then, maybe, the notion of us-against-them will weaken, and in time, we will abandon our beliefs of ‘otherness’ and understand and adopt ‘togetherness’. If we can all succeed doing this on a personal level first, group level second, and national level third, there may not be a separation of race, nation, culture, or religion anymore, but we will belong to a peaceful place, each one of us free to choose the way we want to be while fully accepting another person’s choices. Then, with some luck, we may be able to act as a model to the rest of the planet.

Although I have talked big in the last few paragraphs, I don’t think what I said can or will be done worldwide, but at least, each one of us can practice loving kindness for one another and hope that the internal peace it brings will spread around. Then, as in the John-Lennon song, “You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.”