Recently I learned of such a thing as a 'mini-nuclear warhead'. This sounds more cute and lovable than the large economy-sized one but, by burrowing through the earth below to knock out underground military facilities, it still has the capacity to kill large numbers of people. Yet it also has the advantage of helping people to believe that we can now have nice clean warfare whilst allowing our fellow world citizens to quietly go on with their daily lives.
They're faceless strangers after all, aren't they? And there are no shattered villages and broken bridges to tell the tale, no battered crops or destroyed vegetation to see. The illusion of a future peace goes on. It must have seemed like a daydream for people of days gone by to believe in a time of future peace, whilst engaged in those countless wars our forefathers fought. Today we need to remember that this small planet we cohabit didn't come to us neatly parceled into separate areas by clear and agreed borders. People had to fight for control of limited resources; of rivers, forests, seas and land. And for every winner, there must be a loser; people who were denied what they thought of as their birthright, their history, their sacred holy places and burial grounds. And so we think that the parcel of land our forefathers ended up with is our identity today. I am my 'nationality' and you are yours. The truth is told by genetic science which proves we are all genetically descended from one symbolic African woman, possibly from what today we call the Botswana region. We have proof that we were originally one single family, subsequently dispersed over the face of the planet, where we went on to acquire different colourings and beliefs, to learn different languages, dances, foods, arts and crafts; all those things that make this such a fascinating homeland to learn about, to communicate among, and explore. Countless people fought and died for us to achieve all that. Most distressing is that countless peoples are still fighting and dying today. Yet it is only in our lifetime that genetic science has evolved to establish that throughout that long and bloody history, we were destroying our own family. To be fair, that's a whole lot of new family history to absorb all at once, after lifetimes of thinking we were just 'Us' and the rest were 'Them'. And the world has never been the same ever since. But as the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes states; "for everything there is a season.... A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace". In this season when we have proof that we are all one family, surely today more than ever is the time, the season for peace.
‘Ye are all the fruit of one tree and the leaves of one branch.’ Pride is not for him who loves his country, but for him who loves the [whole] world.”--Abdu'l-Baha. A Traveler’s Narrative.
"The earth is one country and mankind its citizens."-- Baha'u'llah
....more like this at https://www.bahaicomment.com
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