A reader asks Matt what we as individuals can do to move the world closer to the ideal of world peace.

Matt responds:

We have been so indoctrinated to believe that nothing can be done.  If we believe that nothing can be done, then whatever happens in the world is completely out of our control.  Well, in whose control is it in?

I believe that nothing happens by happenstance; things happen by design.

The people who rule the world, in many cases, want to keep us hating each other because of our color, creed, or religion.  It’s detrimental to their power to see people accepting each other and becoming one as a species that is caring, loving, peaceful, and tolerant of each other.  They would rather us be mindless mass, constantly stirred up, irate, selfish, envious, intolerant, milling around looking for people we can beat the hell out of.

We might start down the road to peace with being more tolerant of the cat or the dog, and work yourself up to the canary, and then graduate to the human race.  Maybe we can be kind to someone we work with, even if they’re a fool.  Maybe we can be kind to somebody who sits alone all the time because nobody pays any attention to him unless he buys a gun and kills 40 people.

Little acts of comfort and accceptance, which might be insignificant to us, might be the greatest thing that ever happened to another person.

A friend of mine, long dead now, used to have on his desk a telephone directory.  Every day at some point he would call someone and congratulate them on their great work.  He may or may not have known what they had been doing, but they were so honored that he’d called them.

I like Nike’s rallying cry, “Just Do It.”  In the quest for peace, there are no victories, there are no defeats, there is just the journey.

We can opt to sit on the side of the road and watch everybody go by, but if we’re going to get to peace, we’re going to get there by loving, caring, expressing, and showing gratitude.  If not to people, then maybe to the canary.

Matt