Summary

The author reflects on an afternoon in Paris filled with indulgence and peace, juxtaposed with global concerns of war and climate change, and concludes with a personal commitment to fostering peace through collective action and positive visualization.

Abstract

The narrative begins with the author's leisurely afternoon in Paris, enjoying shopping for a party dress, Georgian tea, falafels, wine, and truffle cheese, while observing the city's fashion scene. The pleasant day turns to contemplation when the author's Uber driver expresses anxiety about the possibility of a world war and discusses geopolitical tensions, particularly in Africa. This conversation prompts the author to recall the contrasting sense of safety felt in Luxembourg post the 2015 Paris attacks, highlighting the disparity in experiences of safety and conflict across the world. The author emphasizes the interconnectedness of the global community, from Georgian tea to a Malian taxi driver, and questions when the world will achieve peace. The article concludes with the author's proactive approach to peace, through an earth healing session with DL Nemeril and plans to join ZD Finn and others for an equinox gathering, suggesting that peace requires positive creative acts and collective visualization to shift the global energy from one of conflict to one of harmony.

Opinions

The author believes that peace is not just the absence of war but a deliberate, positive, creative act.
There is a shared concern about the possibility of a future world war, with specific worry about it occurring in Africa.
The author values personal actions and gatherings as means to promote peace and healing.
The author reflects on the stark contrast between moments of personal indulgence and the broader context of global conflict and suffering.
There is a sense of responsibility and urgency to respond to the world's abrasive energy with a new, peaceful backdrop.
The author endorses an AI service, ZAI.chat, as a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus (GPT-4), suggesting its potential utility or relevance to the readers.

Indulgence, War, and Peace

My afternoon in Paris

Today I went into town and bought a party dress.

While my size was being couriered over, I wandered to a favorite shop to buy Georgian tea. Then the Jewish Quarter to get falafels for dinner. And the large Italian specialty store for a bottle of wine and fresh truffle cheese.

At a leafy cafe I watched the people go by, checking if what the fashion articles say about “what French girls wear” is true. Kinda. But it’s not nearly as glamorous as they imply.

It was one of those days that Paris does brilliantly when it’s not too hot or cold or rainy to go out. It was a perfect afternoon of indulgence.

On the way home my Uber driver was listening intently to a piece on emissions trading on the radio. As we hit a traffic snarl up he sighed with real feeling, “Will the world ever know peace?”

“Well, Paris won’t,” I replied, looking around at the honking cars.

Then I noticed the radio voice describing the meeting between Putin and Kim Jong Un.

Peace here, disaster there

“I’m afraid of a world war,” my driver went on. “And when it happens it will be in Africa.” He went on to explain the ins and outs of geopolitics in western Africa.

After I got home I thought how I felt in the aftermath of the November, 2015 attacks on Paris. The following week I was sent to work in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Luxembourg, where I finally felt temporarily safe, but stunned that life went on as normal there.

That’s what is happening again, but this time we are the ones enjoying life in relative safety, while war rages in Ukraine and lives are devastated and lost in Greece, Morocco, Libya, and elsewhere.

The world is ever smaller. Georgian tea, Israeli falafels, Italian cheese, and a Malian taxi driver in a short afternoon. How can we fail to be aware of what is happening elsewhere, of all the connections?

When will the world know peace?

What to do?

Laws, meetings, new technological standards — these things are needed of course to counter climate change and broker the end of hostilities. But peace is not only the absence of something. It is a positive creative act of will.

This week DL Nemeril and I met to do an earth healing. The feeling of peace was so palpable we were both left reeling slightly, yet feeling lighter. Next week I will travel to London where I’ll meet ZD Finn and others for the equinox. It takes many evoking peace, sending out a positive visualization, a feeling vibration, that others gradually respond to and that becomes a new backdrop to replace the abrasive energy we have accepted as “the way things are.”

Balance, a new beginning, and peace

The autumn equinox is a point of balance, Rosh Hashanah, a new beginning. These markers on next week’s calendar are worth a pause to reflect and change course. While being grateful for the little snatches of respite we may enjoy.

This weekend I’ll attend an engagement celebration — another kind of new beginning.

May the world find peace.