Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00488)

I found a quote in my early morning's reading today about a matter I've
thought about for a while now but don't know a better answer than just to
advance bit by bit. The quote comes from such an unlikely author as Gloria
Steinem whose book "Revolution from Within A Book of Self-esteem" I
discovered on the women's shelf at the Book Warehouse. This is one of my
favorite places around Syracuse. It carries a plethora of overstocks & out
of prints at a good discount. Never mind that it's located in one of the
seedier neighborhoods in town. Never mind that I found a little dead mouse
on its sidewalk the day I picked up Gloria Steinem & a few other assorted
women's books plus a few boys' books for my grandsons. I spend a few hours
in there every time I go.

"... changing the way we raise children is the only long-term path to
peace or arms control..." The way to peace I learned from Roger Gemme long
ago is to be peaceful within oneself. If everyone could achieve peace
within there would be peace without. It's much more difficult to come to
such a state as a grown-up when one has to first undo the umpteen things
one's parents taught which didn't lead to peace than it would be if one
had learned to be peaceful within oneself as a child growing up. Easier
said than done. When one remembers that the human struggle is based on trial
& error when mankind was young even more so than today. The errors were
built into our present unfavorable karma. So our not being able to be
brought up peacefully goes way back to the dawn of time & I think can only
be squared away gradually over the course of centuries.