We asked Dr. Evan Kiel, PhD, where the confusion between peace and piece came from.
Well, first of all, the words sound the same. Like those T'shirts that say “Whirrled Peas”-- by the way, thanks for printing my article. This would be much tougher to explain in dialogue. There are always people who say they want peace, especially during a time of war. We hear it all the time. We don't want war, we want peace. Have you hear that?
Yes I have. I think I've even said “I'm a lover, not a fighter.”
Oh. Well, hmm.
Excuse me. Continue. We don't want war, we want peace.
Oh? Right! But the truth is, we still have war (quote un quote, won't you put that in quotes?)
Sure. Continue.(Anyone who writes in HTML knows how much I'm enjoying this interview)
We still have war “ ”
Oops! I missed the quotes. Give it to me again.
We still have “War”
even when we're not “at war”. The war I'm referring to is the peace/piece war. Okay, so there is no war between countries. But there is still the internal war, not among groups of people or gangs or whatever. I'm speaking of the internal war in our heads, which comes out in our society. Why do some people drive like jerks? You mention in your other article. Why? Are they in a hurry? Are they thinking about something other than driving? Are they angry? Do they feel last in line so they want to make up for it by getting to the front? All of this is the “piece” I am talking about. Everybody wants a piece of life, let's say. A piece of being first. Ahead of the line, knowing more than the next guy, or (he points) gal. Yet often times this piece does not bring peace. Are you following me?
Yes, I am. Thanks for the gestures. they really help.
Oh. (He blushes) So anyway, there is a simple solution to this issue. It's so simple in fact that it seems silly explaining it to you. You seem very bright to me.
Hit me anyway.
The simple solution is for people to realize that the piece they're looking for is the peace right in front of them. That's the piece! Do you see? The piece is peace so the piece they are looking for is peace… It is the same thing, with a different spin. It is not a physical thing or a material good or even a time span, it is here. (Gestures to his heart) and here (gestures to his head.)
(An aside, I must admit, Dr. Keel is very expressive with his hands and perhaps could accel at sign language, which I'll suggest after the interview.)
So to sum it up, well, I'm getting off the point, but it all comes around again. To sum it up, I have to say we have to look at our lives as being sponges. Not just our internal organs absorb--that's physical, our bodies absorb what we eat, our brains by what we think. We are all sensory sponges, physical, mental, spiritual. Now mind you I haven't touched on a very obvious point, not only do we absorb, but we process and use what we can and discard what we don't need--I'll get to it. But as anyone can tell you, if you soak up spilt water off of the floor with a sponge, when you wring it out in the sink, what comes out of the sponge is water. Same holds true for our lives. Everything we say, do, every action we react to is a process of wringing out what we have absorbed.
Interesting. But what about what you were saying before? How we discard what we don't need.
Aha. That's the myth. The greatest myth. If we were able to discard “everything” we didn't need, as a quick example, why are our closets so full? Why do we have so much crap in our houses? Why do our bodies keep fat? Why can't we shake some memories? You see, we do not discard what we don't need. We discard some, that's true. But not all. This is the greatest problem in our society. We think we can throw anything away, but where does that go? Back into the cycle. But you see, some things do not fit into the cycle. Some things, and I'm speaking about and beyond the physical, have no place.
And so?
And so, back to peace and piece, we need to be conscious of what we consume and what we produce. If we consume that which we cannot digest and rid ourselves of, there's no point in consuming it. If we, on the same note produce what cannot be absorbed, the waste lingers somewhere in our cycle. You realize even the air we breathe out has a place in our sky. Even chemicals that go into the air go somewhere. Very strong ending.
Thank you.
So, and in conclusion, if we could just understand this cycle, and know our piece is peace, we'd solve a lot.
© January 1999 The Snooze. All rights reserved.