Peace Is Like What?

I got stuck on peace last week.  Unable to come up with my own pithy sentence about peace I googled "literary quotes about peace."

Of one hundred different statements about peace all agree in attitude: Peace is desirable; conflict is disturbing.  From one hundred quotations by influential leaders four stuck to me. (This was not easy to do.  It took me days to decide.)

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

Mother Teresa 

“Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.”

John Holmes 

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

C. S. Lewis 

“My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M's and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.” 

― Dave Barry

Googling one hundred quotations about peace sounds a bit obsessive, doesn't it?  But let's not go there. I'd only defend myself by saying I was looking for antidotes to the clash of conflict in the news and on the street.  

My exercise began as a light diversion and ended in a maze.  Here's why.

I began with "Was peace a feeling or a behavior?"  Seeing disagreement among spiritual and social leaders, I shifted to How many categories of peace are there?  and then to Does anyone agree on what peace is? 

Maybe similes and metaphors would provide clues.  I googled this fragment: "Peace is like a..."

In 2001 Leif Enger wrote a best selling novel titled Peace Like a River, a title inspired by the hymn It is Well with my Soul.  The novel's ingredients for conflict include kidnapping, murder, and death in order to illustrate that no situation is beyond the miracle of redemption.

In 1971 Paul Simon wrote Peace Like a River during the era of Viet Nam protests.  The first line says "Peace ran through the city like a river." The lyrics speak of enduring beatings and waiting.  "I'm reconciled/ I'm gonna be up a while"

In 1873 Horatio G. Spafford wrote the lyrics for the hymn It is Well with My Soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

A group named Goospel Soul Children offers the African-American Spiritual recognized by its promising words "I've got peace like a river...I've got joy in my soul", which can be downloaded as a ring tone.  

A Ringtone!  Now we are getting somewhere.

Instead of "Ring, Ring, Ring, Someone's Calling" you can hear "I've got peace like a river; I've got joy in my soul."  The nuance would be entirely different, even if it were your estranged brother calling for a loan or your spouse calling to ask you where the hell you are.

I'd like to upload a few ringtones to some characters who have crossed my path.  How about these:  "Slow down, you've got to make the morning last" for the guy who cut you off on the parkway.   John Meyer's "Waiting on the World to Change" for the mattress salesman who just pulled a bait and switch.  Michael Buble's "It's a Beautiful Day" for the endless complainer at the gym.

A ringtone would be a silly approach to tragic, seemingly insurmountable conflicts.  The Egyptians are erupting in the streets (It's a Beautiful Day).  Senator Cruz wants to unfund our health care law (Slow Down, You've Got to Make the Morning Last).  Schools lack funds to open on time (Waiting on the World to Change).  

And then something horrible happened in the midst of my goggle diversions.  Syrians were dying from chemical attacks.  I lost heart.  Peace?  How?  

The African-American spiritual’s line "I've got peace like a river" isn't frivolous.  It emerged from the brutal fields of American slavery and resonates with scripture.

Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.  Isaiah 48:18.

Between Isaiah's warnings (8th century B.C.), the emancipation proclamation in 1863,  and today's headlines -- achieving peace, even identifying it, has proven to be illusive. It's the elephant in the room.

We usually must move along to keep up.  We don't have free hours to research thoughtful verses about peace.  We are lucky to sit still long enough to absorb a backyard view of flowers, birds, and shade trees, much less relax along the bank of a meandering river. 

We want peace, in any form, as a behavior, as a feeling, as a hope, for three seconds or forever.  We are advised:  peace begins within oneself and requires right choices; peace is not possible alone, without God, without communion with others, without love, without consideration.  

I'm thinking it might do to start small, maybe finish something.  I'm not a fan of m&ms and chocolate cake, but I could iron some shirts, grout the shower, and finish this post. We'll see how that goes.  

Then maybe I will be ready to move on to something more challenging, like not interrupting my husband while he's talking.  Listening to others without reacting -- don't think I saw a quote or ringtone about that one.  

Summer's Treasure

“Ol' man Simon, planted a diamond. Grew hisself a garden the likes of none. Sprouts all growin' comin' up glowin' Fruit of jewels all shinin' in the sun. Colors of the rainbow. See the sun and the rain grow sapphires and rubies on ivory vines, Grapes of jade, just ripenin' in the shade, just ready for the squeezin' into green jade wine. Pure gold corn there, Blowin' in the warm air. Ol' crow nibblin' on the amnythyst seeds. In between the diamonds, Ol' man Simon crawls about pullin' out platinum weeds. Pink pearl berries, all you can carry, put 'em in a bushel and haul 'em into town. Up in the tree there's opal nuts and gold pears- Hurry quick, grab a stick and shake some down. Take a silver tater, emerald tomater, fresh plump coral melons. Hangin' in reach. Ol' man Simon, diggin' in his diamonds, stops and rests and dreams about one... real... peach.” 

― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

Our friend was walking me through his miniature orchard on a ranchette near the Wyoming border.  "We lost our peaches in a late frost," he said sadly.  

At the same time last year, Bill had quietly handed me a peach and a knife.  "For me?"  I said as I greedily slipped a slice into my mouth. 

Amused, his wife watched me slurp and swallow what I soon learned to be their first peach of the season. If I hadn't been so happy, I would have been embarrassed. Our friend, the amateur orchardist had carefully pruned his trees and watched the buds swell from limbs above a blanket of snow, hopefully winter's last icy bite.  If a late frost nips peach blossoms, the trees won't bear fruit.

When I hear local peaches are ripe, I feel like dancing and singing.  It's love, all love.  

Think about it: what is the difference between telling your lover, "I left you a sandwich and an apple" versus "I left you a sandwich and a peach"?

An apple is as common as a sandwich, but a peach is extraordinary.  An apple is a hug; a peach is a kiss.

Two peaches rest on my kitchen counter top.  These two peaches are South Carolina peaches. They were a gift.  We are balancing our desire to eat these two peaches against a desire to appreciate them slowly.  Timing is important.  If we wait too long, they will ripen to mush.  But if we eat them right now, they will be gone.

In the refrigerator are four peaches remaining from my visit to a local orchard where I chose between two kinds of yellow freestones.  "Flaming Fury" won out over "Celebrity", mostly for the name but also for its tempting burgundy and golden orange skin, and thus imagined gustatory magic. 

People actually fight over peaches.  Georgia claims to be "the peach state." An iconic peach is on Georgia license plates and on its official state quarter.  A giant peach drops from a downtown Atlanta building every New Year's Eve.  Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Peachtree Road Race. Peachtree Publishers. Peachtree Gifts.  Peachtree -- everywhere.  However, according to a 2011 New York Times article*, South Carolina has rivaled Georgia peach production for years.

I grew up in Northern California where peach season lasts to October, which might account for California's ranking first among the top four states in peach production.  New Jersey, the original source of peach agriculture in the U.S., is ranked fourth.  Not that any of this rivalry makes a huge difference.  If we want to eat fresh peaches we will find them.  If the local peach crop fails, Georgia is only five hours away.

A peach has a scientific name -- Prunus Persica -- erroneously assigned by Europeans who believed peach trees originated in Persia.  Ancient Romans had called the fruit malum persicum, or Persian apple, which morphed to the French pêche.   In truth, peach cultivation originated in China, a fact supported by early Chinese writings and art, and confirmed by contemporary scientific analysis.  I hope Georgians won't be too disappointed to hear that China ranks number one in international peach production. 

Personally, I don't care who produces the most peaches as long as someone does. 

Here's what a peach awakens in my sensory memories. Pealing and pitting peaches with my mother.  Pulling a dusty quart jar of Elberta peaches from a basement shelf.  Making peach ice cream for a church social.  Driving down a Georgia highway off the beaten path in search of a Georgia peach and discovering a potter as well.   Returning from South Carolina with a box of peaches perfuming the station wagon.  Recalling how I could never convince a Vietnamese friend that a peach tasted better than a mango.  

A typical peach weighs 3.5 ounces.  When you eat a fresh peach, you consume 9.4g of carbohydrates, 8.39g of sugar, 1.5g of fiber, .25 gm of fat, and .91 gm of protein in addition to 20 vitamins and minerals.  More than 80 chemicals contribute to a peach's aroma. In comparison, a small apple weighs 4.8 oz and has 14g of carbs, 2.4g of dietary fiber, and 10.6g of sugar.  You need to heat an apple to appreciate its perfume.

If you want to boost your carbs and dietary fiber, eat an apple, not a peach.   If you want to savor an intoxicating aroma while sticky juice runs down your chin and eat the fruit believed by the Chinese to contribute to immortality and guard against evil, eat a peach.

I took a neighbor two peaches when I visited her this week.  I'd like to think she will continue to enjoy a good life, free of evil, and attain immortality.  No doubt her kind nature will reward her with a measure of immortality.  I'd like to think a peach or two -- the inspiration for a luscious poem by Li-Young Lee**; the subject of cultural lore and paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, and  Cezanne; the cause of interstate marketing rivalries; the favored fruit of kings and emperors; the source of twenty vitamins and minerals -- might also nourish her spiritually and physically.

Notes

* "Peach Rivalry Becomes War Between the Tastes" by Kim Severson.  New York Times. July 27, 2011.

** "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee, from Rose.  BOA Editions Ltd.  1986.  
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171754

"'Something is about to happen,' he told himself. 'Something peculiar is about to happen at any moment.' He hadn't the faintest idea what it might be, but he could feel it in his bones that something was going to happen soon. He could feel it in the air around him ... in the sudden stillness that had fallen upon the garden."

-Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach, which tells the tale of a giant peach growing from bean seeds then transporting James beyond the abuse of his childhood.