And There Will Be Peace...Or Maybe Not

Welcome to another installment of secret subject swap. This week, 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Links to all the blogs will be listed below. 

My “Secret Subject” is:

You have one opportunity to secure world peace. The only condition is it's based solely on what you're willing to sacrifice. If you make a big enough sacrifice, the world will have unending/eternal peace. Don't make a large enough sacrifice, things will continue as is. What sacrifice do you make? What sacrifice is just too big?

It was submitted by: http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/

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My fellow Bloggers, I feel that if every single person on this planet just had better understanding of what it’s like to walk in each other’s shoes, if we all were capable of a little more empathy, we could resolve every conflict that plagues our global community. If we could just spend some time gaining perspective on what each of our lives is worth, we could finally begin to see those conflicts resolve. With just a little more effort in understanding each other’s plights, we could finally attain something that is forever sought but always manages to elude us—world peace.

Sound like bullshit? It kind of is.

"World Peace" is an abstract term that really has no true meaning. I’m not saying that the idea of wanting world peace is a negative, hokey thing. It’s not. But when you think about it on a deeper level, the entire idea of it creates more questions than anything. What would world peace actually entail? Settlements to all human arguments? Squashing all religious strife? Resolving all social inequality making every human no matter what race, belief, gender, or sexuality completely equal in every society across the globe? Tackling all social issues that lead to any sort of strife? Closing the gap on income inequality? Ending world hunger? Giving everyone fresh drinking water and access to education? Establishing democracy and free market capitalism across the globe leading to the bigger question of whether or not democracy and capitalism encourage war? What does peace look like and entail for other cultures? Would it be the same? Would it be morally reprehensible to force one idea of peace on every culture worldwide?

See, here’s the thing… You can’t simply end all wars to establish world peace. There’s a reason that so many conflicts pop up continuously across the world. It takes more than resolving the disputes already in progress in order to have any modicum of peace. Those clashes have longstanding histories that have created out of control social issues that a wave of a magic wand would never touch unless humanity itself were changed. What part of the human condition across the board would have to be altered or subtracted or added to in order to make eternal world peace possible? Would we have to become mindless zombies that are no longer able to stand up to our governments or even each other? Would the collective progress of the world be stopped because people can no longer take risks that would lead to change? Could change exist in a world that is blanketed by peace or does change inherently come with strife and disagreements which threaten to unravel the docility of the world?

As great as world peace is in thought, I don’t think I can live in a world where change can’t happen. Some of the biggest changes that have played out in humanity were revolutionary, rebellious. Bloodshed was an unfortunate by-product of those revolutionary actions, but where would we be without them? Where would be without riots and coups? Where would peaceful protests have gotten the American Revolutionaries when it came time for this country’s independence? As much as it sucks to think of casualties as a necessity to progress, sometimes that’s the bitter truth of it. And, I don’t want to live in a world where that can’t happen. I don’t want to lose the part of my humanity that pushes me to right a wrong no matter the consequences.

So, to answer the question, I wouldn’t sacrifice anything for world peace. I do want a more peaceful world. To be clear. I want a more socially conscientious world with equality, where people aren’t dying of starvation every 4 seconds, where people have access to water—clean drinking water, where people have access to education and aren’t stoned to death for being raped. I want a culture here in America where black men aren’t 21 times more likely to be killed by police and where rioting is an option but maybe the unheard voices are fewer and fewer. I would and will devote my life to being a catalyst of social change…for fighting the good fight and being an ally, but there’s no sacrifice that I, a sole person, could ever make that would be enough to establish a world peace that I couldn’t fully believe in to begin with…

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Thanks for reading. I enjoyed the way this prompt made me think so I hope no one gets the feeling that I'm poking fun at it with my overanalyzed, non-answer to the question. This is simply the only answer I have for something I feel is such a highly complex discussion. Anyway, here are the links to the other blogs! Grab a cuppa and enjoy :)

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                          Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com                                       The Momisodes

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/                          Spatulas on Parade

http://dinoheromommy.com/                            Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

 http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/                        Stacy Sews and Schools

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/             The Bergham’s Life Chronicles 

http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com               Evil Joy Speaks

http://www.JuiceboxConfession.com                    Juicebox Confession

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/                       Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://www.silenceofthemom.blogspot.com           Silence of the Mom

http://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com/                         Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

http://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com                         Climaxed

Secret Subject Swap: April Edition

This is my second time participating in the Secret Subject Swap with Baking in a Tornado. This month 14 different bloggers decided to particpate. We each submit writing prompts that are then swapped and interpreted in our own individual styles then we post them all on the same day at the same time for everyone to enjoy.

My subject was submitted by Dino Hero Mommy.

"As spring approaches what are you impatiently waiting to do? Why?"

...soil caked under my nails and between my toes

...sweat on my brow and soaking through my shirt at the small of my back

...green fingers and broken nails from pulling weeds by hand

...the swaying of tiny seedlings in the summer breeze

...parfum de plant de tomate (tomato plant perfume)

...the first blooms followed by the first pods and fruits

...a pot of green beans on the stove grown from seed to maturity

...squash grilled to perfection

...every meal graced by my own work

Thinking of Spring (which is already arriving here in Climax) brings on images of gardening, and I have been impatiently waiting to get all that started as the throes of winter have clung harder than usual this year in the South. Growing up, I never would have pegged myself to be a gardener, but for 4 years now, it has been the best therapy. Standing between the rows covered in green stains and dirt letting the first ripened cherry tomato of the season burst in my mouth is better than any pill I could ever take.

Perhaps it’s the work involved, the focus on the tasks at hand that keep your mind free from everything else, or maybe it’s the actual enjoyment of the spoils of your labor that does it. Maybe it’s all of the above. No matter what does it, springtime is planting time. It’s time to get dirty, to work my hands into the soil turning it by hand, to water and weed, to love every moment in the sun surrounded by bees and earthy aromas with weeds and dirt clumps stuck in my hair.

Springtime means working for myself and enjoying the fruits of that work rather than working for someone else. Every moment spent laboring in the South Georgia humidity provides my little family with another black eyed pea, another tomato, another green bean or squash. Every moment sustains us, nourishes us. No one reaps the bounty of my work but me and it feels phenomenal. I’m not getting paid by the hour to turn earth and pull weeds just to give the harvest over to a boss or an owner or a CEO or another asshat investor while I barely bring home a handful of beans for myself. It is all mine unless I choose to give it. There are no words to describe the deliciousness that brings to my life.

As Chuck Palahniuk eloquently wrote in Fight Club, “ I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.”

The work I put into my land changes that. It gives me purpose and a desire to be able to truly take care of myself without reliance on a job I hate and shit I don’t really need.

Springtime is revolution time.

Here is the rest of the linkups for this month: 

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                          Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com                                       The Momisodes

http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/              Stacy Sews and Schools

http://followmehome.shellybean.com                        Follow me home . . .

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com                        Someone Else’s Genius

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/                      Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://www.dribblesngrits.com                                Dribbles and Grits

http://www.impoverishedvegan.com                        Impoverished Vegan

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com                      Spatulas on Parade

http://dinoheromommy.com/                                   Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://morethancheeseandbeer.blogspot.com               More Than Cheese and Beer

http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com                    Evil Joy Speaks

http://www.JuiceboxConfession.com                          Juicebox Confession