Gambling on Peace

So much has been flooding my inbox and Facebook about people arming themselves and being afraid.  How do we protect our children?  How do we protect ourselves and our home?  The answer is simple.  You can't.  You can't be prepared for all things to come and if you spend your life afraid and every choice you make is made in fear, then you are not truly living.  I have done a great deal of reflecting and thinking and it seems to me that people never choose peace.  People always choose war.  The first choice in war is to look at external causes for your actions and take no personal responsibility.  For example, my friend told me she was going to go to classes and buy a gun.  Why, I asked?  For protection she offered.  From what, I asked?  From everything she answered.  Guns do not protect you from anything.  Just like guns do not kill people, people do.  She was making a choice to fight.  She was potentially making a choice to kill if necessary.  She chose war.

War is evil.  War kills period.  I firmly believe that the only thing war accomplishes is death.  War is like a gun.  War may be easier, drive the economy more, and cause so much pain and devastation that real change becomes a more acceptable alternative, but it still has only one outcome that is for certain.  Death.  Death of real children, real adults, and real people that never touched a gun, a bomb, a club, a rock or any other weapon.  Real people that were living their lives, shopping, taking a walk, watching TV or going to school.  There are many choices that lead up to war, but we make those small choices every single day.  War is over if you want it.  IF YOU WANT IT.  If we all chose change and not war it would be over, however, fear makes people choose war.

If any of you have ever read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, you can see the error in choosing war.  Let's say my friend buys her gun.  She is safe right?  Wrong.  Her house was robbed while she was not home.  Thieves stole her gun and then broke into her neighbor's house and shot her neighbor and five children while they slept.  This made her more afraid so she moved close to an military base and bought a new gun and installed an alarm system.  The military base was targeted by terrorists and bombed.  One of the bombs missed and hit her house killing her and everyone in a 10 mile radius.  There will always be more guns, more bombs, more people that have no empathy for human life beyond their immediate family or just themselves and the first time we CHOOSE war we head down that path that only leads in one direction, more death.

I know, everything has to die right?  All paths ultimately lead to death.  So why worry about when or where?  Why do we need to take up arms or lock our doors at all.  Gotta die sometime right?  I'm just like the rest of you, I don't want to die.  I don't want to die before my kids are grown and I see everything there is to see!  Actually I want scientists to develop robot bodies and just transfer my consciousness into it and never die, but that is just me.  I certainly don't want to die knowing that a thief has just stolen my gun, shot me and now my two small children are facing that thief alone with their mother bleeding out all over the floor in front of them.  I don't want my kids to die, or my family, friends, people on the street, or anybody to die truthfully!  It is sad.  It is a part of life however.

Living is also a part of life.  A part I think some people are so afraid of death that they forget about.  If you were the last person on earth and everyone else was gone, would you just crawl in a corner and wait?  I certainly hope not!  I hope you would really really live!  Live for all of us that are gone!  Swim in the ocean!  Go to a Five Star Hotel and live it up!  Eat a million chocolates!  Dance all night!  Drive like 120 miles an hour!  Go to a mall and try on everything!  Just live!  I know I want my children, family and friends to go on without me, remember the good times and live their lives to the absolute fullest!  I also want them to live with no fear of being imperfect.  I want them to take chances and make mistakes!  I want them to love so deeply it makes them cry and never be afraid of that!  I never want them to be afraid and that is something I can teach them.

How do you teach someone to be afraid?  You live in fear.  You do only what is acceptable or expected.  You live like a gangster.  You fit in and if someone comes at you with a bat, you get a knife.  If they come back with a gun you get a bigger gun.  You look, do, feel and be everything you can to not be weak.  You don't love.  You don't feel anything if you can help it.  You resist change or any ideas that might be different than what you see as acceptable.  You fear people that are different from you.  You don't educate yourself.  You don't travel any farther than one state away.  You are possessive and don't trust anyone.  This is what you show your children.  You teach them that fear is necessary, because you never know when something might happen.

You could teach them to choose peace.  You could teach them that change is inevitable.  You could teach them that because you never know what might happen, something great is just around the corner.  You could teach them that death is going to happen to all of us, but that doesn't mean you won't always be there for them in their hearts and minds.  You could teach them that all living things are connected and when one thing is harmed we are all diminished in a small way.  You could teach them that it is okay to be afraid sometimes and talk to them about their fears until they feel more confident in their ability to handle everything that comes their way.  You could teach them to be responsible for their choices and to think ahead.  You can teach them  to care about the world not just our little corner of it.

We all never know when something might happen.  I could post this blog and get into a car accident and die.  Should I not drive?  Fear has this wonderful way of blinding us to common sense, change or any opportunity that might come along with the risk we take just walking out the front door.  Choices are all we really have in this life, everything else is just the luck of the draw.  You have to play the cards your are dealt and hope you get a good hand, but if you quit playing you are guaranteed to lose.  I choose to play with everything I have in me!  May all the world be comforted and know they are loved.  May all the world seek guidance and wisdom.  May all the world choose peace for the sake of their fellow men/women.  May this spirit last all year long and bring change.  May all the world be free from fear.  Good luck and Happy Holidays!