Peace on Earth.
There’s no more powerful or yearned for wish this time of year. Some people believe Peace on Earth means an absence of war or other violence. The way I see it, though, Peace on Earth means more than just cessation of conflict. To me, any world truly doesn’t have peace until its fractured existence is made whole.
This is why I worry when I see people building walls and putting up barriers. As much as we may believe that our thoughts are wholly right for us, these very ideas may be totally wrong for someone else.
In other words, I don’t believe we’ll obtain a completed world by becoming the same, any more than a completed puzzle can be obtained with just one identical piece. Each of us is unique, interesting and valuable.
So how do you achieve unity and completeness when we are all so different?
Perhaps the first step is to realize that societies flourish when a rainbow of views is allowed to exist. Societies stagnate when only one view hogs the spotlight. The reason being is that a one view society doesn’t allow for new ideas to be nurtured. A one view society considers all other views a threat to its primacy. In other words, a one view society doesn’t allow rainbows to form.
If a rainbow is what we’re after we have to be okay with the fact that life will be more messy with rainbows. There will be some stormy times. Rainbows don’t exist without the rain.
Next, we have to set our expectations a bit differently. We have to realize that human beliefs are always in flux—we just change at different speeds.
Some of us are quick at picking up on injustice. Some of us are slow to recognize when ideas have become outmoded. Some of us are free spirits. Some of us are traditionalists.
If we truly want to repair the world we must stop destroying each other just because we perceive the world through different experiences. I prefer to win people over by my actions rather than shut them down with my words.
So, as the new year approaches, it’s my dearest wish that not only will we see the Magic that resides within each one of us, but that we will use this awesome power to conjure a completed world where all of us truly belong.
—Jellybean Reds, Creator of Little Creatures
