Today we’re celebrating International Day of Peace. This UN promoted event is meant to inspire hope and action towards a world free from violence.
Given the current global situation, today might as well be called International Day of “We’ll Settle For Thinly Veiled Disapproval of Those Who are Different From Us.”
Apologies for the less than optimistic take on the spirit behind today’s event, but take a moment and think about what “peace” actually means and you may come over to my side.
Peace, by definition, is a complete end war and violence. We’re talking total tranquility, everything and everyone is hunky-dory.
That sounds great, right? The problem is we have several steps to get through before arriving at this “peace.”
These steps include, acknowledging the other side, listening to their issues, trying to understand their perspective, and learning to not just tolerate, but accept those who we may not necessarily agree with or completely understand.
It all sounds like common sense, right? Well, congrats, you’re a good one.
There’s a lot of good and good people in in the world, in fact I’ll go as far as saying the good outweigh the bad. The problem is the bad tends to be louder and blind and deaf to those they don’t agree with.
That’s a lot of work before we can even start thinking about peace. Still, while days like today remind us of how much work still needs to be done, they also show us how far we’ve come. They inspire us to be our best selves and to help others to be their best selves. They provide hope, which is really what we need most when striving for peace.
So, after accepting the reality of the situation, here’s to hope for a better and brighter future.
More on the Story:International Peace Day
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