For ‘Peace on Earth’ to be more than a holiday greeting card sentiment there needs to be a transformation in this country from a culture of violence to a culture of peace. Source: www.ThePeaceCompany.com.
If you can read only one book to get up to speed on peacebuilding, this is the one, and it's only $6.00. The Peace Company's campaign, "The Great Peace Give Away," is devoted to nothing less than cultural transformation.
The Great Peace Give-Away
The vehicle for The Great Peace Give-Away is The Peace Book: 108 Simple Ways to Create a More Peaceful World by Louise Diamond.
The goal is to saturate society with simple concepts and everyday activities for making peace a way of life, and ultimately, to replace our current culture of violence with a culture of peace.
The Peace Book presents four basic principles that form the basis for a peace culture: Community, Cooperation, Nonviolence, and Witness. In an easy-to-read format, it offers 108 simple suggestions for turning these principles into practical action in everyday life.
The suggestions cover the whole range – from inner peace to peace at home, at school, at work, in the community, and in the world. They also deal with special topics, such as nonviolence, diversity, social justice, reconciliation, the environment, and spirituality. Every chapter includes a list of resources including websites.with a description of each, making it a remarkable research guide.
Over70,000 copies of The Peace Book are now in circulation, thanks to the many readers who have appreciated the concept of The Great Peace Give-Away, which is- Peace grows when you give it away! The book is ideally suited (and nicely priced) as a gift of peace. People buy the books by the boxful, and give them to friends, students, family members, co-workers, customers – even strangers! In this way, the power of our existing networks can be used to spread the message that each and every one of us can help make a more peaceful world.
Individual orders are $6.00. Churches and other peacebuilding organizations can order 20 books at a time for their members for less than $5.00 each. To order go to http://thepeacecompany.com.
Following is an excerpt.
WHAT IS PEACE?
This book is about peace. What does that mean? Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence—the presence of connection.
Inner peace is about connection with our true and natural self and a sense of being part of something larger. This connection gives rise to serenity, balance, and a feeling of well-being.
Peace with others is about our connection with the open heart, through which we remember our shared humanness. This brings us to the practice of conflict resolution, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Peace in our communities and in the world requires a connection to respect for our multiple differences, and for the right of all people to justice, freedom, and dignity. This leads to trust, community, and co-existence.
Peace is a state of mind and a path of action. It is a concept, a goal, an experience, a path. Peace is an ideal. It is both intangible and concrete, complex and simple, exciting and calming. Peace is personal and political; it is spiritual and practical, local and global. It is a process and an outcome, and above all a way of being.
Ultimately, peace is about the quality of our relationships—with ourselves and with others. How can we live together, in the smallest individual and family units and in the largest networks of peoples and nations, in ways that honor who we are as dignified human beings? Think of this book as addressing that question, as an inquiry into the rich and varied nature and meaning of peace.
