Peace? Are you kidding me?

The second Sunday of Advent focuses on peace. How does one even begin to think about peace in such a time as this?

Words such as attack, armed conflict, war, bombing, missile strike, drone strike, genocide, insurgency, mass shooting, forced relocation, sexual violence, and rape permeate our news and our consciousness. The world is a long way from peace. In 2022, over 260,000 people died as a result of armed conflict. And by far, the greatest number of these deaths occurred not in Ukraine, Syria, or Myanmar, but in Ethiopia.

Called “the forgotten war” by the Spanish newspaper, El País, the Ethiopian conflict is the deadliest of the 21st century with 300-600,000 civilian deaths in just a few short years. As the Israel-Hamas war has taken over U.S. headlines from Ukraine v. Russia, the conflict in Ethiopia, which some have called a genocide against the Tigrayan people, has received scant press attention. If asked, “What are your thoughts about the war in Ethiopia?” I would have to honestly reply that I have no thoughts about it because I don’t know anything about it. I’m aware that people starve to death in Ethiopia, but I would have attributed that to climate change and poverty, not to intentional food deprivation and ethnic cleansing.

My point is we hear about wars and conflicts that the media envision might interest us. While Ukraine and now Israel have our attention, the majority of the American public doesn’t generally care about genocide in an African nation or the host of other nations around the world where war is a reality of everyday life. If that’s true, then do we really care about peace?

What is peace?

The most common definition of peace is the absence of war and other forms of large-scale violent human conflict. Johan Galtung, a Norwegian socialist and founder of peace studies and peace research, has proposed an important distinction between “positive” and “negative” peace. Galtung refers to the absence of conflict as “negative peace.” “Positive” peace denotes the simultaneous presence of many desirable states of mind and society, such as harmony, justice, equity, and so on. That’s the peace I pray for in this time of Advent.

The National Peace Academy defines peace as ““the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.”

I like that definition. It embodies peace, not just as the absence of conflict but the positive attributes which bring us, our families, our communities, and our world to a place of harmony with each other and the Earth. All the issues associated with the absence of peace disappear when we focus on building healthy, resilience, non-violent, just, and equitable communities.

What does it mean to live in peace?

I live in a tranquil suburb in a relatively quiet community, in a commonwealth and country that generally (although not completely) respect my rights as a married lesbian to live the life I choose without threat of violence.  And yet, statistics show that somewhere in my neighborhood, a person, probably a woman, is being verbally, physically, and sexually assaulted behind the closed doors of her suburban home. A few miles away, people live in poverty, struggling to put food on the table. In some nearby neighborhoods, the threat of gun violence is a real and present danger.  

Students in this country go to school every day afraid that someone will enter their building with an automatic weapon and gun them down. Other people fear going to a concert, a parade, or even their church because they remember when others died doing that very thing.

In the U.S., we do not typically fear missile strikes or bombings hitting our homes and destroying our hospitals because suspected terrorists are holed up there. As much as people around the world might hate Americans, we are not threatened with mass annihilation on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean terrorists might not break through our dome of security, like they did in 2001. It doesn’t mean that internal threats from American extremists might not be successful in waging war inside our country. But it does mean that we can be lulled into a sense of peace. We can conflate calm with security and feel at peace, even when peace is an illusion.

Let it begin with me

I’ll be honest in saying that I struggle with whether my peaceful life is a good or bad thing. When so much is going on in the world that isn’t peaceful, am I living in a bubble of privilege to relish the peace in my life?

What I’ve come to accept is that the answer is complicated. As the old hymn says, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” If, with all the benefits that I enjoy, I can’t live a peaceful life, there’s no hope for the world.

However, if I can live in and work for peace then peace has a chance to grow. When we’re internally grounded and living in harmony with nature, we find peace. When we extend that peace to our families and they, in turn to their workplaces, schools, and community, we grow peace. When we grow peace locally, we can enhance peace nationally. When we enhance peace nationally, we influence peace around the world. It’s the power that we hold as individuals.

Yes, I’m incredibly privileged to have the life I have. It’s mine, not because I earned it, but because I was born into it and haven’t done anything to have it taken away from me. I’m lucky. As I see it, therefore, I have two choices: to live in my bubble cut-off from all the world’s turmoil, or engage with the world, from my place of privilege, to work for peace.

I choose the second option. I focus much of my energy on addressing racism and other forms of oppression. I know there’s more I could be doing but, unlike some of my friends who give so much of themselves they can no longer find peace, I have decided that I must be grounded first before I can give to others.

That’s why I take myself into nature, why I enjoy photography, and why I write. It’s why I cherish time with my wife whenever our schedules allow. It’s why I check in with people I love even if it’s more often than they check in with me. It’s probably even why I get engrossed in a good TV show. I do what I can to feed myself so that I have something with which to feed others. Some might see it as indulgent, lazy, or lacking in passion. I see it as balance.

In a world that’s so out of whack, each of us can contribute to peace by living in as much balance as we can possibly create for ourselves. Our overt expressions of kindness, joy, hope, and love make the world a better place for everyone.

I hope you’ll give yourself permission to find peace in your own life this Advent season as you diligently work for justice, equity, and compassion throughout the rest of the year. I assure you that the world will benefit from your efforts.

May there be peace on earth and in your life,

Annette