Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
“So, if there's warfare and not so conventional warfare, is there 'peacefare' and not so conventional peacefare?”
Nine-year-old Vertran Stepforth had questions, and his eight-year-old Gracie Trent knew where to get some answers.
“Well, my dad who is your uncle is off second honeymooning with my mom who is your aunt, and my uncle who is your dad is trying to keep Zoom from dumping the Stepforth Study Hall off again, so because we're not racist or anything, we can go ask Col. Lee.”
“It's good not to be racist, because then you can get the knowledge from everywhere!” Vertran said as he got his little digital recorder.
“Pop-Pop says he's waiting for a whole lot of people that look like the Lee family to figure this out,” Gracie said, “but while they don't, that gives him a competitive advantage in business!”
“Yeah, because the dumbest thing you can do anywhere in business around Pop-Pop is think he's dumb because he's darker than you – he's only going to tell you once, and then he's going to run over you,” Vertran said. “He didn't become a triple billionaire being nice to people who don't listen!”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said.
Col. H.F. Lee was intrigued by the question when he got it.
“Hmmmmmm … the answer is yes, but it is just such an interesting question … give me a few moments to break it down.”
The colonel considered his long family history, and then the long history of Africa before that, and then everything he remembered from Scripture, and then made an answer.
“Peace, itself, is the natural state of all things, and at the same time not so conventional,” he said, “because as long as someone wants what someone else has and is willing to break the peace to get it, war of some kind will be present.”
Vertran and Gracie thought about this, and then Gracie said, “Is this basically like how we get up in the morning and everything is so quiet and pleasant and then you look at the news and people start doing dumb stuff?”
“That's exactly it,” Col. Lee said. “So then, the work of peace is to restore the natural state – and it is hard among us humans because we don't always care for righteousness and fairness if we don't see ourselves getting what we want. So, sometimes, the peacemaker and peacekeeper have to be really smart to figure out how to give peace a chance.”
“OK, so I have six siblings, just like our Ludlow friends are seven,” Vertran said, “and it would be real easy in that kind of situation for people to be fighting, but our parents and grandparents are teaching us how to love and care for and share with each other – is that peacefare?”
“That's an excellent example of peacefare,” Col. Lee said.
“See, I'm totally into this,” Gracie said.
“We see George and Edwina are getting into it with all our help, and we're working to help Milton just get some better ideas,” Vertran said.
“Well, all that is good peacefare, and, since everyone is different, there's nothing conventional about it. Things are much more peaceful when we understand and care for people as they are, not as we want them to be so it is convenient for us.”
Vertran considered this.
“No wonder there was a Civil War, Col. Lee – no offense meant to your family, of course – but Gracie's and my ancestors were never meant to be slaves, and the way you explained how to keep things peaceful means the warfare was already going on and just spilled over to everybody.”
“I don't disagree with you at all,” Col. Lee said, “and, by this time in 1865, I don't even think my famous uncle would have disagreed with you, since he waged peace by surrendering in April that year.”
“Except maybe we are a bit young to be bossing up on generals like that,” Gracie said.
“At colonel level, but not quite ready for generals, eh?” Col. Lee said with a smile.
“Well, it's like everything else – you gotta practice first,” Vertran said. “Thanks for hosting a good practice, Colonel. This was good.”
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said. “Just gotta keep practicing until Grayson gets the time machine together, and then we can go back and explain some stuff and make the past a better place like we're gonna make the future a better place.”
“Has he done his blueprint for the Lego time machine yet?” Col. Lee said. “Excuse me, y'all – let me go see if he has enough blue paper in stock.”
“Yeah, and I'll call Louisa my fiancee, because the math on time travel is tremendous,” Vertran said.
“Yeah, because a lot of kids our age can't even count up to 1865, much less backward from 2020,” Gracie said, “but you know when you are on a mission of peacefare, you just have to get your life and your math together.”
“Ain't it the truth,” Col. Lee said, with a smile because it was Mrs. Maggie Lee's turn to fall out laughing at this turn of the conversation.