The month of December has been a busy and active one on the World Dreams
Peace Bridge.
On December 6, Jeremy wrote from Korea.
"Yesterday and the night before, I
had a good reception at the UNESCO cosponsored Symposium for Peace and
Reconciliation in the Asian-Pacific Region. The first night, I sang the
'Peace Train Song' the best I have ever sung it, and on stage (for the
first time solo) before an audience of about 100--all but three of them
strangers. The next day, I met people from various countries, some of whom
had heard my song and were pleased with me, and others who had not but who
became friendly with me and showed interest in the peace trains, which were
being displayed up and down the stairway leading to the conference hall.
"Some capable people expressed interest in helping the peace train in their
own countries, including a Swiss official from the World Council of
Churches..., a Ghanian theological student, an Indian professor who said
his daughter in Calcutta might help, a Sri Lankan peace activist, a
Cambodian female social worker, and most concretely a Korean woman with the
sponsoring UNESCO organization, who proposed I give other presentations at
an upcoming teachers training workshop at UNESCO and also a Peace Education
training workshop in the summer....
"The Centere also invited me to hold two Children's Peace Train workshops,
training teachers, so that they can go back to their own classes and teach
their students about Peace, including through Peace Train making: one on
January 22nd at their headquarters in Seoul, and another around August
18th, during a ten day teacher training workshop, also in Korea."
A week later, Jeremy also sent a note about the creation of Peace Trains in
Seoul. "During the Fall Term of 2002, South Korean students from my Peace
Education classes at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul visited
local elementary schools, playgrounds, art schools, churches and private
institutes, as well as members of their own families, to introduce, help
create, and collect Peace Trains. I asked my students, 'What did you learn
from the experience of making peace trains with children and others?' All
without exception had a very positive learning experience. Here are some
of their replies:
'I did the Peace Train with my cousins. But when I talked to them, I
didn't know if they would help me. I found they were happy to help
me. Everybody had their own idea of Peace. If somebody starts to think
about Peace when they were very young, maybe they would be more active in
Peace work later in life.'
'At first kids didn't know what to do. Then I asked them, "What do you
feel about Peace? What do you want to do about Peace?" Then they loved
it. They couldn't stop talking. They had so many ideas I didn't want to
tell them what to do. I told them to do what they wanted to do.'"
'When I asked the children to, they made pigeons flying to North Korea,
people climbing mountains, etc. Their brilliant thoughts astonished me.'
For more comment from Jeremy's students, and a look at the progress of the
Peace Train Project, come visit the World Dreams Peace Bridge web
site World Dreams Peace Bridge
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/index.htm
And that is another thing which happened during the month of December. The
dreamers of the World Dreams Peace Bridge created a web site. Money for
the site was donated by people in the group, and the gorgeous design for
the web site was created by Elizabeth Diaz. We had discovered that, for
new arrivals on the Bridge (and people do keep coming to the group), it was
becoming more difficult to understand what was happening. The pace of the
discussion group can be a little overwhelming, along with just figuring out
who's on first...or should I say who's got a foot on the Bridge. With the
web site, which also contains the history of the World Dreams Peace Bridge,
we will much more easily be able to keep people informed.
Not just people, but dreams keep arriving, in a process that is somewhat
startling, even to those of us who've been in on it since the
beginning. Here's an example. During December, the discussion group added
two new members from Australia, Nick and Janette. Janette is talking about
introducing the Peace Train Project to public schools in Melbourne, while
Nick sent a couple of dreams he'd had about a treasure chest and putting
treasures in the box. Next thing you know, Kathy is dreaming about
Aladdin's cave full of treasures, and there is a plan developing for
putting a page on the web site for people to donate their own
treasures...in the form of dreams and ideas...to the web site. All within
the space of a week.
And finally, speaking of Australia, Peace Bridge member Victoria Quinton,
was interviewed this month by a reporter from a sustainable growth magazine
put out by a company called GHD in Sydney. Among the questions she was
asked were:
- What do you think are the five major problems, issues and challenges now facing humans in the area of sustainability, peace, and harmony in the world?
- What is your vision of how it could be?
- What do you see as the pathway?
- Who else do you know who is working in these areas?
- What resources do you recommend?
Truthfully, the first question alone would have stopped me, but Victoria
(who many of you know from her role as moderator of the dreamchatters
online group) is an articulate and knowledgeable spokesperson for both
dreams and peace.
Of course, there is still war and rumors of war. Yvonne, in Mexico City
had a dream in early December that World War Three had begun and nuclear
bombs were being dropped on the U.S. Fortunately, this was "only a
dream." But because the dreamers on the World Dreams Peace Bridge tend to
believe that our dreams can change the world, we plan to celebrate the
Solstice on December 21 by joining Roger Ripert in France, and the rest of
the people in Onieros, in the Planetary Dream for World Peace.
In this holiday season, dreamers are especially aware of the song which
early became the theme song of the World Dreams Peace Bridge: "Let there be
Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me."
The World Dreams Peace bridge is open to all people who dream of world peace:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org
or discussion group: worlddreams-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
|
