if you search for peace –

what is that?
everyone asks.

i’m a semester into the program
and you know what?

i still don’t know.

honestly?
i think the fact is
no one knows.

stan: what is one most important thing our society needs?
gracie hart: that would be harsher punishment for parole violators, stan.
[silence]
gracie hart: and… world peace!
– ms. congeniality

my understanding of peace before this
has been in terms of two approaches:
inner peace (&/or lack there of)
and peace, not war.

an i d e a l
found somewhere along
the wings of white doves
& olive branches,

a state of being, an end point.
at the end of the long & winding road
a refuge from the storm
(the ceasing of the storm?)

it sounds nice,
(doesn’t it?)

it’s everywhere.

the search & thirst for peace
is seen in many of the major world
religions, in many secular approaches

the methods may be different
but that innate desire for peace
is interwoven into the story of humanity

but, what IS it?
what is P E A C E?

this semester i took the following classes:
development, peacebuilding & human security
gender & peace
ideas on peace
peace & conflict I

turns out, there are many theorists, academics,
and ordinary people who have tried & are trying
to answer the question.

the foundation of peace studies comes from
jonathan galtung, who coined the terms:
positive & negative peace.

negative peace: peace, defined by what it is not
the absence of w a r.
peace k e e p i n g

positive peace: peace defined by what it is
social justice.
p e a c e b u i l d i n g

peace it seems cannot be conceptualized
without looking at its relationship to violence,
there is an inextricable c o n n e c t i on

 so, what is it?
what is V I O L E N C E ?

galtung defines violence as:
“avoidable insults to basic human needs
and more generally to life, lowering the
level of needs satisfaction below what is
potentially possible” –

i.e. the difference between what is
and would could be.

in doing so, he creates three subtypes:
direct: physical violence

structural: structures of unequal power that
do not allow people to realize their full potential
i.e. racism, poverty, sexism

cultural: aspects of culture that legitimize
the other two forms, i.e. religion, language.

… great.
so. everything is violence (?)
and nothing is peace.

while this is a cornerstone of peace studies,
it is only the beginning framework
there are many people, with many ideas
about what peace is, & what it looks like

so then, you have to ask yourself:
peace for  W H O ?

paz. ειρήνη. Barış. amani. សន្តិភាព. peace. kapayapaan. 平和.

many languages have a word that is translated
to peace, and yet, it can’t actually mean
the same thing –

each word informed by different cultures,
different histories, different experiences &
different people.

what peace means to me and what
it means to someone in rural china,
are likely very different things —

and yet,
we all want world peace.

(what does that even mean?)

this semester i have been exposed and challenged –
there are always two sides to every story.

the successes and failures of UN peace keeping operations
liberal peace building through democracy and free markets
undertaken in post conflict societies
NGOs telling stories of refugees to raise awareness and yet
in doing so inadvertently victimizing groups of people

peace for me, may not be peace for you
sometimes peace for one, is bought at the expense of another

reading through the works of hannah arendt,
immanuel kant, gandhi, martin luther king, erasamus,

having the honor to hear experiences and perspectives
from people around the world: sierra leone, malaysia, india,
england, colombia, vietnam, ghana, and the u.s.a.,

and even if we can promote peace, even if we can do
humanitarian work and find a way to work with one
another in a way that respects our differences
even if there is a way forward to world peace –
… is it even sustainable?

dang.
all my grand illusions about
the world of peace building
s H a T t E r I n G
at my feet.

i came to learn about peace
and all i’ve found is war.
more questions, than answers.

so what’s the point anyway?
it’s not even possible, is it?
even if you try and help, it seems
unavoidable to do harm.

i spent a good part of this semester
feeling even more pessimistic about everything
than before i arrived –

i feel the earth q U a K i N g beneath my feet
and i just want to crawl under the table
put a pillow over my head, and
close my blinds

and yet, in all of this,
we have also been asked to
rethink p e a c e —

and as i rethink, i start to wonder,
maybe it seems so hopeless, because of
what its been made out to be:

a goal. an end point. an ideal.
if that’s the case, we’ll always be disappointed.

i think back to argentina, two years ago,
in a small church filled with kind and welcoming
people, where on the wall were the words:

“dice el mundo después de la tormenta
vivene la calma. dice dios yo so la paz
en media de la tormenta.”

the world says the calm comes after the storm
God says I am the peace in the middle of the storm.

that’s the thing. there’s always a storm.
violence is always a reality.

and if that’s the case.
peace must be a process.

we move in & out of peace
throughout our lives –

t r a n s i t o r y
&
t r a n s f o r m a t i v e

it is a continual dialogue, a work in progress
something we lose, but can find again.

it’s broad, multi-dimensional
it means something different
to everyone, at different times

and if that’s the case.
it isn’t hopeless at all.
it means, we can all play a role.

a seashore full of starfish
a little boy throwing them back into the sea
one by one by one

an old man laughs, “there’s thousands
of starfish, and only one of you. what difference
can you make?”

the little boy picks up a starfish,
throws it into the waves –
“it made a difference to that one.”

at the bedside of someone dying, holding their hand,
marching in the streets, protesting injustice,
listening to someone’s story and trying to understand their experience
sitting in the quiet of night, allowing that stillness to wash over you

every day, we have the opportunity
to build bridges of peace in some way –

even though, honestly, i still don’t really
know what peace is, what it looks like,
what it could be —

peace I leave with you,
My peace I give you,
I do not give to you as the world gives.
do not let your hearts be troubled
and do not be afraid.
john 14:27

but i do know, it’s a process.
and it’s one i want to be a part of.
the magnitude of the problem
seems insurmountable, but God
can move mountains.