Peace Letter November 2020
On Peace 2020 (02)
When is world peace? In 2 months and 9 years. Our wishes follow their own rhythms. Usually we learn walking in the first years of our life. How long does it take to learn a language? How much of what we learn has a rhythm? Unique. Why do I want to talk, why do I run to walk? Are we imitating what is around us or are we able to feel our wish to talk, our wish to walk?
What rhythm do I follow when we think of becoming vulnerable — who can teach us? Maybe a rhythm very deep in us.
Who is my new teacher after the highest mountain learned me to climb and the deepest ocean to swim; and the biggest nuclear bomb to destroy? Who is next? Time to be vulnerable.
What is the new rhythm even if the biggest nuclear bomb can not teach me anything new anymore? What is the rhythm of peace?
Do we want to learn? Do we need to learn — together? Without climbing, without swimming, without destroying.
What is your wish? How is your wish a wish of all of us? Can you hear its unique sound — so familiar to all of us. Our wishes come with a rhythm and we are part of it. Maybe we are all part of your wish, too?
Wishing to be vulnerable
Dear friends,
Brené Brown says in her TED-Talk: “What makes me vulnerable makes me beautiful.” She continuous: “In order to allow for connection to happen, we need to allow us to be really seen.” In all our beauty. Being vulnerable. Fear of disconnection, fear of not being good enough is in our way. We struggle together in being worth enough for each other. We struggle in our wish for love and belonging. Our wish. A rhythm. A race we cannot win, a mountain we cannot climb, a ocean we cannot cross, a bomb we cannot detonate. What rhythm is it? Something we can only hear together. Our heart beat of connection.
What makes you feel vulnerable?
In his documentary A Life on Our Planet, David Attenborough speaks of a “vulnerable world”, a world where we cannot go against Mother Nature but only with it. I read about the loss of biodiversity, for example as one of the planetary boundaries (can you find it at 11 hours?), but basically ignored it — this film has changed that. It also shows that we can only do things WITH each other, not against each other. With:
We’ve got what we need for change.
With each other we can learn from each other.
We improve what we need to change.
With is simple. With is change.
We need to change. There is no planet B (something I took from last month’s homeschooling lesson).
It is still puzzling my head with the information I got in my homeschooling lesson on nuclear weapons systems. I was so confused to listen to security experts talking about the future of weapons systems, sharing their knowledge on technological innovations, and then putting it in the frame of national security, technological advantage and, of course, nuclear deterrence.
What technologies do we need to deter effectively?
What knowledge do we need for that and how do we make sure, that only we have the knowledge and the new weapons significantly sooner than our “adversaries”.
With. With not against. With is simple. With is new.
The perception and security structure we need to gain back biodiversity, our battle, has not yet come to our mind and heart. A forceful rhythm, a rhythm able to detonate nuclear bombs, still tells us what to do. Hence, we still prepare our next war. We still study war. A rhythm that forces our mind to think in categories of separation and hate. I left that classroom. Too complex for me. With is simple. Study war no more. In a separate room, I found a book and it said: With. Will we be able to dance in the rhythm of connection, again?
Learning being vulnerable
Instead of learning how to trust each other, we still try learning to be stronger, greater and less vulnerable. We fail to negotiate meaningful arms treaties, while the arctic waters don’t cool down. We clink to fights while the easiest way is to say “I am sorry”. Who is saying it first? Moving on together. Our mind sets us again and again on a race track; our heart beats us every moment through an arms race. Hurry up. Sign with hypersonic speed, before we all can swim to the North Pole.
October 2020 “The six warmest Octobers occurred in the last six years… Much above the average in most of the Arctic” Learning matters. Sharing matters.
We are competing against time — how do we want to win a race against time? Being vulnerable also means being faster and light. With nuclear weapons we carry a lot of weight. How can we move freely if we have to maneuver 13’000 nuclear warheads every moment around the world? A rational mind says: we need to disarm, we need to reduce risks. Nuclear deterrence does not allow to reduce any risks in the future, because we will not be vulnerable enough and not able to build trust. All we see is a dangerous world, and not a world that is a partner.
What we can do today is to listen to time and to invite time to sit with us. It’s an invitation. We can share time together. Here and now. Anywhere. Anytime. And we have words to share, while we share time. And we will be vulnerable, while we listen. With. With time and with our neighbors — the one next door, the one across the ocean, brother snake and sister tree. If we think of a shared world, we definitely need to think of a planetary unity, including all beings on Mother Earth.
What are trustful signs of vulnerability?
Listening to all allows us to learn from each other. We need each other to learn from each other. What we know is simply not enough to solve our problems. We need to overcome my own ignorance, by listening and learning. Organizing transformation also means to be open for what is new and unknown. We need to trust to reveal what we haven’t learnt yet. And we are 7.6 billion people, we can learn from. What are we afraid of? Instead of learning how to cooperate, we raise military budgets. How is this a sign of trust? What are we afraid of — we need to learn anyways, why not now. What are we and our leaders afraid of? Why do we still need nuclear deterrence? We cannot beat time! With. What are the places that can teach us? Our colorful war textbooks, demonizing the enemy? No. Next chapter — study world peace. Opening the chapter that can teach me, time joins to teach me. With. Us. Together. Vulnerable. Beautiful. Our task is not to become stronger — we cannot win against time (we need to get war out of our present mind and future’s minds — why does anybody needs 500 new ships till 2045 — guys we will work hard on peace, we will do our job till 2030) — but to become weak and soft. To share our weakness, uncertainty, vulnerability, to be wrong, to be human. To be able to learn from each other. To share. It’s human not to win and not to know. Normal. With.
“- Hey Joe, my hypersonic missile passes Mach 5 now.
- Wow Vladimir, mine just made Mach 5, too. What a fun game to play… How should we continue?”
How do we invite time in our house? We open the door, light a candle. We walk together and we share — we share to learn, to be wise (not wiser, it’s not a race). An open door — to our mind, to our heart. We just don’t want to keep our knowledge secret anymore. In our concept of trust and unity, keeping secrets that harm someone hurts. It hurts our soul. I hope we kinda get it soon and start to share our secrets, collectively — “Hey Joe, my hypersonic missile passed Mach 5. Wow Vladimir, mine just made Mach 5, too.” Great exchange of knowledge, great learning. For what? I hope that our stories will be more exciting. In order to learn, in order to grow and to care, we want to be vulnerable. And we need to, are asked to. With.
Beauty is being vulnerable
What kind of power is our mind, if we constantly think in secrets, weapons systems and by trying to become stronger? How free and liberated are we? What rhythm are we listening to? How feels our heartbeat if we focus on seeking advantage of any situation? Do we listen? Do we care if our action harms us, someone else and the environment? I am tired of that rhythm that solves problems through might and power. It hurts. Power hinders us to share knowledge because we seek advantage first.
Still relevant questions of our time. Have we worked together on answers?
Why not sharing knowledge? We don’t seek connection with people. We rather keep our nuclear warheads hidden; we do not move the stone in front of our nuclear tombs. We don’t want to crucify them for peace. Redemption — not in our lifetime — we hold on to our nukes. OMG, what would Jesus say? While we pray at our holy sites for redemption, we are holding on to our nuclear arsenals only a few Parsa'ot (distance a person can walk in one hour) away. Holding on to power. What invisible walls are between now and peace?
Redemption is easy. Verify. Verification is easy. Share knowledge. Yet, we don’t want to be vulnerable. We still prefer to run against time. We are still not at home. Still in exile — dominated by our weapon systems. Slaves of a rhythm we don’t want to be part anymore. Our heart is disconnected from time. Threatening each other with nuclear warheads can’t bridge that gap. As long as we go against each other, we cannot win that race. With.
How to be vulnerable and staying connected? How can I share what I have? And how can we work together without overpowering each other? First, we leave our weapons at home. We also speak in words that are not seeking advantage, we listen. We cook together and we do the dishes together. We leave our protective tools in the bunkers of our time.
Can you imagine 13,000 nuclear bombs in your kitchen (a pile of dishes twice as high as the Mt. Everest) — and all the submarines and bombers in your parking lot? I mean, that is what’s going on if you take the perspective of Mother Earth and think of the airspace and the oceans as basically our parking lot. We are cowards, if we show up to her table with all our tools. It’s a weapon free zone — our mind, our heart and our world. Be courageous. With.
Are you interested in being vulnerable?
Being vulnerable means to do dishes together, while we talk. We do our homework together. Each move of our hands teaching us how to be vulnerable. How to be in this unknown space. The unknown that is not a doomsday we prepare for with our mind, heart and weapon systems. Our future is based on sharing and caring. We’ve got the technologies to do both — we have a mind to decide. I made up my mind. I am interested in being vulnerable. Vulnerable is beautiful. I want to see what a world looks like, that is not fueled by the idea of deterrence.
Being vulnerable means awareness and balance. Vulnerable societies know their limits and do not harm themselves — they create structures and decision making processes that are based on the needs of everybody. We give up strength and power to gain balance and wisdom. With wisdom we can create change, with change we can save our world. A wise person also knows the moment to stop — stop winning. The beautiful movie the “The Queen’s Gambit” shows us how, with a lot of humility, we know when the player we play with, has more knowledge and will always have the better answer to our next move. Time to stop (Trailer: 00:10). Watch or join in with Josie, an ukulele teacher, to lay down our might.
There is no planet B. But there are still 13,000 nuclear warheads on planet A — 20 of which in Germany. Are we still trying to win a game? I don’t get it?
Peace is teamwork
We do change together. We should encourage each other every day to believe in our abilities to do change together. Yes. We should get used to it. I can’t do it myself. So can’t you. Don’t forget, we are many. We all take care of different topics at the same time — aware that we are connected and aware of our intention not to harm each other. And we do it. It’s a rich, amazing and beautiful world, and the world is working with us — not against us. With. Mother Nature cares. So do we. Arms Control, for example, we do together. Only together.
Yes we have answers (Source: Capturing Technology. Rethinking Arms Control). Yes we have a treaty to join. The table is set.
Nonviolent: writing our new textbook
How to summarize my thoughts? It's just a drop in the water of time. There is more to learn:
Vulnerability: Leave power behind to become beautiful.
Wisdom: The ability to listen and to learn from all — we know that we don’t know.
Caring: Working together to manage our challenging problems.
Doing dishes together: What we give with all our heart. Sharing. Not hiding and not wanting to hide our knowledge, feelings and thoughts.
Balance: In balance with our eco-system partners (waves, trees, animals, mountains).
Time: Our shared rhythm of peace.
Best wishes from Berlin, peace in our hearts, peace in our world, Salam, Shalom
Dominikus
Time
Almost a constant way of being; never in the scope of doing.
Sometimes moments become mountains, and mountains become dreams.
We hear a bird softly touching gras.
As we walk, time walks, in us.
How to sing together and to share our garden? Jericho 2015
NEWS OF THE MONTH — signals of trust and unity
Sudan announces normalization with Israel: Sudan is the third country to announce normalization and a peace-deal with Israel, after the UAE and Bahrain have done in the weeks before. Sudan and Israel's leaders "agreed to the normalization of relations...and to the end the state of belligerence between their nations," as well as economic and trade ties. (24.10.2020) Also insights by the US ambassador to Israel on ongoing cooperation talks between Israel and UAE. Read also Barak’s (read from 3. Scoop) piece on the Israel-Emirate cooperation to broker normalization with Sudan.
A treaty to ban nuclear weapons will enter into force in 90 days: Honduras is the 50th country to to ratify the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. The treaty prohibits the development, stationing and also the threat to use nuclear weapons. Though nuclear weapons will be considered illegal by international law, Germany and many European countries are not willing to sign this treaty — Sorry, I forgot to mention the nuclear states that boycotted the treaty — apologize for my ignorance. (26.10.2020)
Libya: Talks will start in Tunisia. The UN is organizing a Libyan Political Dialogue Forum starting in Tunisia in November. Peace is not in sight but bringing members of many different parts of society together is already considered a success. Hope works patiently.
After 50 ratifications, the #nuclearban treaty will enter into force. Thank you ican.
These walls have seen a lot — Jerusalem. Passing in stones of friendship