One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix
Last night I had the great good fortune to see Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee speak in Portland. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Nobel Peace Prize winner in person, but in Gbowee’s case, it turns out you don’t have to split atoms or cure cancer to make a difference. It was fascinating to listen to a woman who originally wanted to be a pediatrician discuss how war and political unrest in her homeland changed the direction of her life.
Creating peace has always been an interest of mine, so it was interesting to listen to someone who’s actually done it on a large scale. Her message was somewhat different, in that she began her journey on a very local level; it was the movement her work spawned that grew from there. Peace isn’t something that one can set out to create in society as a whole; it’s something that begins from within each of us and works its way up an out from there. Much of her work was dedicated to helping women and children deal with the psychic wounds inflicted by war, rape, and poverty.
Gbowee’s work isn’t dramatic; it’s really quite simple. In the same way a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so peace is created when one person decides to do the work necessary to find it in themselves. Then and only then can they begin to help those around them. Once that process begins, it can make a tremendous difference. Gbowee’s work in Liberia is proof of that.
Leymah Gbowee decided she was tired of war. She was tired of seeing husbands and sons killed, women and children raped, and a country being laid waste. She stood up, met other women who felt the same way, and together they demanded- and got- and end to the never-ending cycle of war, rape, and destruction. That’s a gross simplification of the challenges they faced and overcame, but they persevered and achieved their goal- stopping war. Once that happened, Gbowee began the work of teaching people to treat each other with respect and dignity. It turns out that the way people treat others in wartime is a direct reflection of how they treat others in peacetime. If you teach people to treat others well, to respect and honor them as equals, it becomes much harder to fight and kill those people.
Gandhi once said for change to occur, a person has to become the change they wish to see. Peace begins when one person models peaceful behavior from within. Then they can help another person do the work necessary to achieve their own peace. If that process continues, eventually the need for war will disappear.
It really is that simple.
