I have always been a huge fan of the peace sign. I used to have a tee shirt that was white and had tiny red peace signs which almost made stripes in the shirt. In many of my photos at the shore between ages 14 and 16 I am wearing it. I had a huge glass purple peace sign I won in Asbury Park hanging from my curtain rod in my bedroom which otherwise was pink and feminine with my canopy bed and pink princess phone.
Oh the conversations I had on that phone.....some lasting until the wee hours of the morning. Some comments where I was so tired I could not recall having made them the next day when they were repeated back to me. I remember well the Indian moccasins I loved wearing. The ones with the long fringe on the side. Love bead jewelery, tiny beads that were made into flowers forming necklaces and bracelets. Those were some of my most carefree times in life. I had a little red Buddha incense burner. My parents went bonkers over that. Of course that made owning it more fun.
Today I read an interesting fact about the peace symbol. Lord Bertrand Russell, head of the British campaign for nuclear disarmament had someone create a badge to be worn by members at their first anti-nuclear weapon demonstration in 1958. The original was hot pink on a black background. The word peace was on the top arch and under it a small white dove. The designer used the letters N and D from the Navy Semaphore Code. If only they would have known that it would become a universal symbol for a group of people and that it would remain popular decades later. I love the concept of peace. It's something that means so much to me. Not just on a globular level but to me in my own emotional state. Sometimes at mass there is a line that we sing that ends "grant us your peace". Often when the weights of the problems feel so heavy upon me, I choke and cannot sing this part. I think when we do things to put each other in a peaceful frame of mind we give the greatest gift possible. If we do not have peace, we have nothing that can take it's place.
Peace begins with a smile. Mother Teresa
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Ghandi
If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else. Marvin Gaye
Peace be with you.
1 comment:
I recently read that the peace sign is actually a bastardization of the "V" is for victory symbol after WWII. Hmmmmm.....I get choked up when everyone grabs each others hands with the "peace be with you" during Mass.
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