The Dalai Lama and Me

“Out of many we are truly one.”  —Barack Obama

This week I was lucky enough to attend the 12^th World Peace Summit of Nobel Prize Laureates.  After trying several times to get tickets to see the Dalai Lama, only to learn that it was impossible, a teacher at school asked if I wanted to chaperone a group of students to the summit.  What luck! 

Our group had great seats and I had the best of them, on the aisle next to a darling student who was even more tickled than I was at the teasing and joking that went on between the Dalai Lama and Professor Jody Williams, the laureate in faded black jeans and sparkling red tennis shoes who is responsible for banning the making and stockpiling of land mines.  With our headsets on, feeling like we were part of the UN, we listened to the translator and President Gorbachev tell us the necessity of dialogue in world peace.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in sunglasses, his traditional red robe and matching visor, spoke quietly about the importance of developing friendship and trust.  Professor Muhammad Yunas, the provider of micro loans to poor people of Bangladesh asked, “Who are banks to decide who is credit worthy?”  He made the analogy of the bonsai tree, explaining that the seed of the tree is planted in a small pot.  The tree grows to look like a huge tree but is only a foot tall.  People ask, “What is wrong with the seed?”  Professor Yunas said the seed is as good as any other seed; it is only grown in a small pot.  Jody Williams ended by saying, “Unite, organize, go forward, and you will succeed.”

All of these Nobel Prize laureates, amazing, effective individuals, have made huge contributions to the world.  We may think of each of them as one person making a difference, but they all had an orchestra accompanying them.  Moving into our Week of Peace culminating with a peace rally and march at school, I’m seeing the power of one that is really the power of many.  Our rally at school may have started with one girl’s idea, “Let’s have a peace rally!  That would be so cool!” but its success depends on the efforts and talents of many.  I’m learning that networking with people who network has far reaching effects.  We have a lineup of amazing speakers: a member of Cease Fire; our area state representative; religious leaders in the community; the local precinct captain; and since the Dalai Lama couldn’t make it, me!  Oh, I’m only going to get the ball rolling and turn it over to the rest.  A student will be introducing all of the speakers and student performers. A group called HoodHope somehow caught wind of the event and asked if they could perform a rap or hip hop piece for peace.  One of the student teachers works for a radio show and jumped in to help advertise and cover the event.  And students!  They have been amazing with their efforts to contact major networks, submit announcements to local papers and spread the word on Facebook.  

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”  I’m in good company.  If someone would have told me a year ago that I’d be organizing a neighborhood peace rally, I would have laughed.  Now I’m laughing because I see a group of movers and shakers: a Peace Club, teachers, students, counselors and administration in a bonsai school; local community groups; Jody Williams; Muhammad Yunas; Mikhail Gorbachev; the Dalai Lama; and me.

I’d like to make batches of peace cookies to start off our week of peace, but in public school we’re not allowed to give out home baked goods.  (Mum’s the word on those peanut butter cookies I made a while back.)  But if I could make them, this is what I’d make:

Peace Cookies

1 c. butter softened

2 t. vanilla

2 c. sugar

2 eggs

4 c. unbleached flour

1 t. baking powder

½ t. salt (I never use it, but feel free and at peace)

¼ c. milk

Cream butter, vanilla then sugar and eggs.  Gradually fold in dry ingredients, alternating with milk.  Roll out dough and cut with a coffee cup or glass to make perfect circles.  Cut out a paper template of a peace sign, hold over each cookie and sprinkle with decorator sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10 to 12 minutes.  Perhaps a mystery bakery would like to whip some of these up in the name of peace.

Wishing the world sweetness and peace.