Pass the Peace Please

I'm back from Sunnyside, WA where I gave my first peace sermon at the Presbyterian Church pastored by the Reverend Kate Isabelle Haney on November 8. I was thankful for this bully-pulpit opportunity to urge active peacemaking through the butterfly quilt's symbolic presence and the sharing of a number of examples of children's visions of peace in the form of postcards already addressed to Oprah's PO Box. The quilt was displayed in the front of the sanctuary on Sunday morning where 11-year-old Max's card was clipped..."My vision of peace is to bring happiness to others..." Peace and joy are often inseparable, according to Max and to Jesus too.

Other card wordings were shared such as: "My vision of peace is to stop bullying at my school this year." Chris, age 11. "My vision of peace is that there be no more littering on the planet." Lana, age 11. "My vision of peace is that all seven continents will have smiles on their faces. Even penguins." Anajulia, age 12. "My vision of peace is for everyone to have a cat." Joe, age 6. "Accepting diversity promotes peace." Grandparent.

I talked about how my former Shasta Middle School students influenced over 1000 people to write peace postcards to Oprah last year...always wording their own thoughts and diverse ways of bringing joy to the earth.

I made the connection between the Gospel, the verse Matthew 5:9, and the students' collecting of 1,000,000 visions of peace postcards and its intrinsic value in influencing change. The sharing of adolescents' dreams of making the world a better world inspire others of all ages to think about and to act on justice and peace issues. The point is not to get on the talk show or even to fill out a card and mail it away; the point is to create the synergy that promotes small actions that change individuals that change more individuals that change many more individuals.

A 22-minute sermon and a reunion with long-time friends from long ago days at Northwoord Presbyterian Church (the Haneys, the Rolfes, the Kirkpatricks) made for a special time. (Also, the four women friends played one great game of pool. I think my partner and I won because I picked up the balls and put them in the pockets.)

Since the Peace Quilt's first appearance at Chico's, the quilt has been shared with 19 different configurations of people and groups. I will add all those stops and a few accompanying captions and photos on my developing map in the side panel. If you are planning to read about the peace quilt journey now and then, know that the template is due to change frequently. A rolling blog gathers no moss. I should probably give prizes to anyone who happens to catch what I've changed from entry to entry. The teacher in me can't help but scroll back to make "improvements"--add pictures, reword comments, add an interchange I forgot to mention, change spelling or word choice, delete B.S. and so on. I hope to switch the current set of maps to a g-map with the help of my friends, Jen Butler and Chuck Vanlue. It does take a village to help me become more bloggable.