Peace: A NON-Non-Entity

The second week of Advent, we light the Peace candle.

Last week’s poem addressed some common misconceptions of Hope: that it is naïve, blind, or vain. Continuing the theme, this week I have tried to refute some mistaken notions about Peace.

Too often, Peace is seen as a non-entity: merely the absence of war or pain or unpleasantness. However, the Hebrew word, shalom, contains so much more than this. It is fullness and wholeness and prosperity and harmony and completion. I...