I tried to imagine a world without a shred of conflict. No wars or dissent. No natural disasters or economies going kablooey. That is what we all want... isn't it? But I don't think so. I think there is something about chaos that forces us to act. We all would love to change something, but the biggest fear is what would actually happen if that change came about. I don't think it's peace we want, but understanding. I desperately want to understand the world and it's people, and why we act the way we do. Why we fight endless wars. Why we have big stockpiles of nukes in the event that we are attacked by our own kind. Why people who seem to have everything they could ever want are still unhappy and looking for that missing piece...
When the peoples of the world understand each other, they will no longer need a reason to point their weapons across oceans. There will always be disagreements, dissent, and chaos. We can never change or grow without them. But there is a difference between learning from the chaos, or getting swept up in it. It's not world peace we want; peace is temporary until the next shot is fired, whether that bullet is verbal or made of metal. We need global understanding. To use our differences to improve the magnifying glass that we have put on our biggest questions since man first put pen to paper.
