THE LIBRARY - BOOK REVIEWS - WHERE PEACE LIVES - DONNE TEMPO
Can a book foster Peace?
by Jacquie Kubin“Where Peace Lives” by Debbie Robins (Cambridge House Press. $19.95. ISBN 0-9787213-7-3) What might make this tale for all ages different is that it offers a solution.
“What is teaching peace? It is creating an understanding and reference point on how to resolve our conflicts,” says Ms. Robins from her Brentwood, California office. “Peace is a muscle that must exercised through practice or else it grows weak. Peace can be created globally by making it a curriculum subject in schools, after history class we have Peace class where we practice role playing and build a context for Peace historically and experientially.”
Cleverly written our young traveler meets characters that older readers may recognize, the Elephants and Donkeys who are fighting in the City of Right and Wrong where Milk is the issue and constant argument over who is right – those who like to drink milk and those who don’t, is tearing their world apart.
“The book has many layers to it, and that the City of Right or Wrong is an interpretation of our government is perfectly acceptable,” says Ms. Robins. “However a child is going to see it as a silly argument over something that either you do, or don’t like.”
At the center of the City of Right and Wrong is a tug of war between those that do and do not like milk that had been going on for “fifty-nine years, ninety-six days and four minutes.” Next to the time counter keeping track of the inane battle is a screen showing the cost, in lives and limbs lost, of the encounter.
Adults may see the parable of a war fought for centuries, which to a child could easily be fifty-nine years, ninety-six days and four minutes. For the child it is a stark picture of two different groups fighting over milk.
And the question becomes does it really hurt the one side if the other side likes Milk? Does it make a difference if they are different?
Could this be one of the keys to set Peace free?
Our narrator continues the journey, seeking refuge from the Cube of Bitterness that engulfs this magical world and continues to travel to the bottom of the sea and the arid desert, where the awaiting camel is allergic to sand.
The computer aided book illustrations by Victor Roberts, though in shades of black, white and gray, are extremely colorful to the mind’s eye. The Angel Peace is ethereal while Luther the Bear provides an aura of magnificent strength, courage and leadership. Along with really, really soft fur.
One might conclude that Luther is the earthly guide, Martin Luther King, to the Prophets of Peace as reflected in the book –Mister Buddha reflecting practices of Siddhartha Gautama and Buddhism, Mahma the ferret representing Mahatma Gandhi, Chris and Mo as the representations of Christ and Moses and Ah from the land of Lad, the prophet Muhammad.
Ms. Robins’ solution to setting Peace free is quite simple; It takes work. It is a discipline that we must study, learn and practice. But for the child and parent, it can start as easily as reading a book to talk about Gandhi. Visiting a mosque to learn of Muhammad. Opening your hearts, and the Bible, to read of the teachings of Jesus Christ
Flex your Peace muscle, work it, and make it stronger. Help your children to exercise their Peace muscle and encourage your children’s teacher to add an ongoing Peace curriculum to their class. Share “Where Peace Lives” as a gift with a co-worker who seems unhappy, or a friend whose anger over a failure is consuming her.
But a great place to begin is to read and gift “Where Peace Lives.” This is a marvelous story for the holidays that should become a frequent “go to” book on your shelves whenever the need to find, or a reminder to find, Peace is necessary.
Debbie Robins interview
How did you create “Where Peace Lives”?
In Aruba I was surrounded by every shade and color of skin and there was a very calm acceptance of those color differences to the point that there was no difference regardless of whether you were black, white or anything else.
Then we moved to New York City and I quickly learned, walking just a few blocks to school everyday, that the rest of the world was not like that. People do not get along. So the voice you hear is that voice when I was young and making the transition that we are a world with differences and that different is a problem. This is something I could never understand.
The child in the book has no name, no specific gender. Why?
I wanted this book to be experienced by
everyone in their own unique way. How powerful
the decision to not gender the child was. I
work in the schools as a volunteer peace
teacher, with children, fostering conversations
on peace and how we can find, and create, peace
– or set peace free. Last year I worked with a
group of more than two-hundred eighth graders
and about fifty real tough, real cynical high
school aged boys.
During this exercise I found that the boys put themselves into the role of the storyteller. They saw themselves as the child on this journey and it make it very clear to me that all children seek to find Peace in their lives, they just don’t know how. It is much easier to react in anger than to step back and say, “I am sorry you feel so bad today” when someone is mean to us.
All of these peace angels wrote me letters with their promises of peace.
During this exercise I found that the boys put themselves into the role of the storyteller. They saw themselves as the child on this journey and it make it very clear to me that all children seek to find Peace in their lives, they just don’t know how. It is much easier to react in anger than to step back and say, “I am sorry you feel so bad today” when someone is mean to us.
All of these peace angels wrote me letters with their promises of peace.
In the book you discuss a Curriculum for Peace. What is that?
My dream is to see Peace as a part of our
global education curriculum. It is something we
need to learn and practice. It would be amazing
if the school day went from history class to
Peace class.
The reality is that we, from the top of the government down to the person, treat peaces as a hope, a wish, a dream. But it is not those things, it is an ideal, a skill set, a muscle, a practice. And we do not have a global initiative to develop that.
The reality is that we, from the top of the government down to the person, treat peaces as a hope, a wish, a dream. But it is not those things, it is an ideal, a skill set, a muscle, a practice. And we do not have a global initiative to develop that.
How do we create a Peace curriculum?
The irony is that
Naomi Drew
and others have written some wonderful
curriculums and books as long as twenty years
ago. Naomi in particular has really answered
the question “How do we make this happen? What
are the literal steps to see the
reality?
What does Ms. Drew teach?
That it is important to teach Peace, creating a
concept and understanding how to resolve our
conflicts. This learning is embedded in
role-playing, which means to literally walk in
another person’s shoes, and understanding that
peace is a muscle, a choice, and to build a
context for it historically.
And it is easier to create a Peace curriculum than a history or math course, because nationalism does not come into the game. The concepts and classes are completely transferable by age and/or race.
And it is easier to create a Peace curriculum than a history or math course, because nationalism does not come into the game. The concepts and classes are completely transferable by age and/or race.
What can we do today to bring Peace into our lives?
Share your Peace with those you meet everyday.
Don’t look the other way, but help someone in
the store who, because of a handicap, is
struggling. Carry an elderly persons grocery’s
to their car for them, encourage your children
and the children you meet through your example
to become more Peaceful. When you want to blame
or judge someone because they have hurt you, or
you don’t agree with what they’ve done, voyage
to the Sea of Forgiveness. If you want to think
you’re right and someone else is wrong and
because of that, begin to hate them, remember
the Keys of Acceptance and Unconditional
Loving. Acceptance, love and forgiveness are,
in my experience, the Three Keys to set Peace
free inside the world and ourselves.
Teach
your children to live the words of Martin
Luther King “I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where
they will not e judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character.”
Or the life of Siddhartha Gautama, who by overcoming greed, hate and ignorance, became Buddha.
Teach your children that Jesus Christ of Nazareth walked his world and proclaimed that it is right to love your neighbors and do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
Explore the messages that these Peace prophets have given and how they can be brought into our lives.
Remember…peace is a choice, at every age and in every circumstance and we can…no we MUST make a difference.
Or the life of Siddhartha Gautama, who by overcoming greed, hate and ignorance, became Buddha.
Teach your children that Jesus Christ of Nazareth walked his world and proclaimed that it is right to love your neighbors and do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
Explore the messages that these Peace prophets have given and how they can be brought into our lives.
Remember…peace is a choice, at every age and in every circumstance and we can…no we MUST make a difference.