Imagine for a moment if all our collective prayers were answered
and somehow the gods bestowed world peace upon us. I know, it’s difficult to
even conceive of, let alone living it.

World peace would entail not only no wars, but it could tolerate
no bickering, no angry outbursts, not even (seemingly in-the-moment
justifiable) low level road rage. It would go so far as to require no negative
or uncharitable judgment of others, no unkind words or acts – or thoughts for
that matter.

This would need an absence of dishonesty (there is no unkindness
like deceit), infidelity, impatience, greed, hatred, and all that other good
stuff that seems to numb our pain.

Could we handle the responsibility, when the world finally got its
act together and actually achieved the holy grail of global peace, of not being
the one to shatter the miracle of millennia with some petty and mindless act of
self-justification or self-righteousness?  

Because, let’s face it, war starts in these small and seemingly
insignificant personal acts in which we ALL indulge on a daily basis. If we all
felt fulfilled, if we were all able to accept everything as exactly as it’s
meant to be (including that slowpoke driver who pulls out on you from a side
street and then dodders along until they suddenly speed up just enough for them
to catch the caution light and pass through the intersection, leaving you to
sit through the red light!) war could not blight our world.

There was an advertisement awhile back in Australia of a man who
snuck out in his lunch hour for a rendezvous with his wife. He is shown getting
out of her car with bits of hay all over his business suit, and he is literally
floating down the street with a beatific smile on his face. That man, in that
moment, I reckon would be incapable of war, in any of its forms – small or
large. 

Good healthy food, good loving unselfish sex, laughter, whatever
brings joy and fun, creative pursuits, acceptance, flexibility to go with the
flow – if we all had these all the time, war would disappear. Paradoxically, it
is almost to have these, while we exist in a constant state of war (with
family, neighbors, other nations, or just other drivers).

 In her book Telos, Dianne Robbins writes:

All life needs peace for
evolvement to take place. Without peace, species just struggle for survival,
and never have “time” to add to the strength and wisdom that they
have accumulated. So peace is a necessary factor for evolvement, and evolvement
is a necessary factor for the continuation of the species.

The conundrum of peace is not solved at a global level. It is
personal, individual and it grows from a collection of small, but immensely
significant, moments and choices.

Surely we get it now. It’s time to choose peace.