'There was never a good war, or a bad peace.'

--Benjamin Franklin.

What is peace?

Have you ever really sat down to think or ponder about this?

Peace. Five letters, a great meaning. Peace is calmness, the ability to think without being disturbed. It is like a gentle river, with perhaps a leaf or two floating downstream...no, but that is too picturesque a scene. That could never be possible in this world, what with the wars and violent negotiations that we seem to enjoy coming up with.

Peace.......the dictionary says that peace is: 'a state of tranquility or quiet, freedom from civil disturbance.' Now, it sounds as if to achieve peace, one must meditate in an isolated area. In my mind, peace would be a society where each was happy with his earnings at the end of the day. Yes, of course, there would be competition, but it would be healthy competition, much unlike the sort that we have today. It would not mean the frantic comparison of marks, flurries of flashing certificates, or whispered salaries behind one's back. It would be a place where nothing was secret, where everyone was transparent, and comparison not needed. There would be no need for maids, or, if there was a need, they would be no more than babysitters and the occasional helper with their own homes.

However, such is the human nature, so that this scene that I have just painted out for you would not, and cannot be possible. People would begin to exploit their way of living, using this transparency of character to earn more money, to manipulate people.

It seems that such worlds, our own version of a utopian society, can exist only in our minds, where characters are as we want them, and all is peaceful.

Peace.

It is such an elusive thing, a goal so hard to reach in these times of battling superpowers and failing economies, not to mention corrupt companies. Our society has become so complicated now that it hardly seems possible to even think of peace. One who comes up with the notion is automatically dismissed. Think about it, peacekeepers in East Timor are soldiers, what does that tell you?

It would be nice one day, to have peace in this world, where, perhaps, Africans were free people, truly free, Indians and the other 'workers' would be able to set up their own businesses, and maids would be a thing of the past.

Just people living contented would be enough for world peace at this moment, instead of planning wars or designing nuclear weapons.

But, for now, peace exists only in our minds, in our own little corners of the earth.

Perhaps we don't deserve true global peace yet, but, there is always our own peace to enjoy.

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