Inspiring words from a sage and impressive performance from a 4 years old, both Art and Peace to celebrate the International Peace Day:
[…] peace is the normal condition of humanity, just like health. There is so much plain, simple, decent behavior around, so much mutual aid, a helping hand, companionship, friendship, good neighborhood when bad luck strikes at its worst. And we sense mutuality, unquestioning reciprocity; not always but mostly. read more
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Nature. Goethe’s famous “Über alle Gipfeln ist Ruh, Über alle Wipfeln spürest Du, Kaum einen Hauch” is a hymn to nature peace as quiet, windless. That is one nature peace.
Another nature peace. In Spain, up there, are two clearly gendered mountains, huge–Adam and Eve. They exude peace in their eternal stillness, unmoving, yet immensely touching and inspiring. Be it windless or stormy, equally faithful. The guardians are there.
Yet another. A river with waterfall and eddies, a beach with the rhythm of waves, long, rolling in, forever. All is movement, like snowflakes in the wind on a winter day; yet there is rhythm and harmony. The water freezes, the ocean flattens, the snow covers the earth.
It is the Rule of Law, Nature’s laws–maybe one day negotiable with less distance to Nature–our freedom is insight in them (Hegel).
Arts. Here is an effort:
KUNST OG FRED
La oss löftes av kunsten
som kunstnerne har löftet den
oppover, utover det vanlige
utover alldagen
slik at vi kan skue langt
utover grenser og klöfter
i vårt uryddige menneskelandskap
inn i andre öyne som
også er blitt löftet
utover det vanlige
for å forenes
i fred.ART AND PEACE
Let us be lifted by the arts
like the artists have lifted them
upward, outward, beyond the ordinary
beyond the run of the mill;
making us see far
beyond borders and cleavages
in our untidy human landscape
into other eyes that
also have been lifted
beyond the ordinary
to be united
in peace.
Art is a medium. The music fills us, and we are in the music, those moments of oneness, in a plush concert hall or on-the-rock, in a street. That spiritual beyond us in any art; in time as music, literature; in space as paintings, sculptures; in both as drama, theater, opera. Written art may more easily communicate concreteness, but for that reason also be divisive; abstract form for eyes or ears may be less divisive, more unifying–but for what? Whatever the answer, there is that moment of oneness, of unity. Precious.
The natural or the artistic? Both, of course. May peace prevail.
Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He is author of over 150 books on peace and related issues, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.
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