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| spring 2007, Atlanta, Georgia |
The
Jesuit college I went to, freshman year being 1971, had no problem
with evolution. From day one it was apparent that evolution was an
accepted concept and studies proceeded from there. My anthropology
teacher had us reading Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who among other
scholarly accomplishments, was a Jesuit priest. He had a theory
called the Omega Point which stated that humans were still
evolving, and our intelligence will continue to grow until the end,
omega point where we are one with God. How about that?
It
seems to me that evolution today is still about survival of the
fittest – if the wars of the world continue, it will be the
strongest, that is, the ones with the biggest guns or biggest muscles
or biggest population that can be sacrificed, who will win. Or if
there is a huge natural disaster which results in famine or radiation
or even computer or electrical shut down – there are few
evolvers-to-godhood who would know how to grow their own food!
But
if we could do away with war – all live in peace, we could focus
our energies toward surviving the natural disasters. And we could
evolve to something better. I have faith that this is possible –
peace is in our genes.
Back
in 2007 – eight years ago now, I marched in a war protest in
Atlanta – protesting the fourth anniversary of the beginning of
the war in Iraq – it seemed so inconceivable that we could let this
go on at all, let alone for so long! (And look at us now!) I made a
sign that said Peace on one side, and Join the Evolution
on the other. I thought it might make people who saw it want to
believe they were in the in group who had the capacity to
evolve toward peace in their genes; it also implied that those who
believed in war did not have the peace genes and were maybe
the simpler, less evolved human beings.
Captain
Kirk and so many others, most of whom are real and not fictional,
would disagree with me and claim it takes both kinds to survive and
head toward the Omega Point. To that I merely reply,
Imagine.
Later
that year I entered a peace slogan competition – I drew a pair of
blue jeans, and up one leg I wrote Join the Evolution and down
the other leg I wrote Peace is in the Genes. I submitted it
but then realized that the pun of genes/jeans is maybe not that cute
– it reminded me of the scene from the movie, The Way We Were,
when Katie was yelling for peace on her college campus during World
War II, and someone held up a sign that said, “Any peace but
Katie's piece!” (years later, Hubble said to her, “if only you
had laughed when you saw it!”) Yeah, maybe the world is not
mature enough for peace in the genes. Anyway, I never heard back from
the competition. Maybe I'll make the jeans myself.
Imagine
– you giving birth to the child who gives birth to the child who
reaches the Omega Point! There will be no war then – and there will
be time and resources to figure everything out, including all that
Teilhard de Chardin was saying – because he was 'way over my
pea brain!
The
fifth of the statements in my philosophy of life is the one that is
quite common to all – Make Love, Not War.
The picture was taken by Al Viola, a peace movement videographer - thanks Al!
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20151226 Make Love, Not War
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