What do you do for world peace?

“So, what do you do for world peace?” were the words that greeted us as we stepped into the ViennaPeace Museum.  The question has haunted me ever since.

The Fox, the more quick witted of us responded, “We smile at people.”

This took the man, a priest from Kenya, aback a bit. I don’t think he ever thought a smile could help the cause of peace.

I found myself thinking “We try to promote understanding. We give time to people.”

We are only small powerless people in world terms, in any terms for that matter.  It is difficult to think anything we do is going to make much difference.

When I was a child I had a speech defect. As a result I spent much time practising smiling, in order to pronounce the English “ee” sound properly. I soon discovered if you smile at people, more often than not, they smile back. Everyone’s life seems that much better for it. I still like to practice & hope to bring a little ray of joy in someone else’s life.

Also as a child, even at primary school, my role was the peacemaker, the arbiter in disputes. If one child was causing trouble, biting or fighting, it was my job to sort it. I did so by words, not force.

In France we are constantly being told the French & the English cannot be friends, & yet we have found nothing but friendliness & kindness there. We take time to stop & chat, to get to know other people & for them to get to know us a bit. We do so for our own pleasure, but I suppose as a side effect it maybe helps relations between the two nations, albeit in a small way.

I suppose to some extent you could say some of my blogs are an endeavour to promote understanding, usually of disability, but above all of difference.

Ultimately I suspect understanding is the only weapon we do have in the face of war & aggression. You are far less likely to attack another nation if you see of them as a nation of people, facing the same everyday problems you do, if they are humans rather than animals, numbers, aliens, to be suspicious of & to fear.

And yet, maybe war is an inherent characteristic of man. There has never been a prolonged period of peace. It seems to me my generation has been lucky not to have had to go to fight. But even in our generation it has to be admitted our own country has not been entirely at peace, just look at Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Iraq, Aden, for example. It’s as though there is almost an inherent urge to go to war.

There could be so many reasons for war. Religion seems to have promoted more war than peace, to divide rather than unite – just think of the Crusades, Partition between Pakistan & India, the present troubles with radical Islam.  

Some men seem to feel only truly alive when they feel that buzz, intensity of life, only when life itself is at risk, as in war – in peace the only resort is high risk sport. For some war is an opportunity for revenge, for wrongs done to family & friends in the past. For others it’s an opportunity for greed as land can be taken over & goods pillaged, an opportunity to make money on the inevitable black market & people smuggling. Others have the chance to use power for their own selfish desires in the knowledge they will go unpunished, & happily use weapons such as rape to that end.

Can man ever be truly at peace with fellow man? I wonder. But the only hope I can see is if man sees the other man as a person, good, bad & indifferent, but above all a fellow human being, if he discovers what is common between them rather than what separates them.

Our answers earned an invite for a free stay in Kenya. I can’t see us taking up the invite. The practicalities of being disabled & a wheelchair user make a stay in rural Kenya unfeasible. But I do think the offer was genuine & kindly meant.

Meanwhile we keep smiling. And giving time to people. And talking.

So what do you do for world peace?