Peace like a bar of soap

I have recently written on my personal blog about North America’s consumer societies, and my wish, instead of being a consumer, to be consumed. Consumed with fire, passion, and energy to do what I came to Earth to do.

Tony Kaye, creator of a documentary about both sides of the issue of abortion called Into the Fire, is quoted in the newest edition of Utne Reader.

“It’s like what John Lennon and Yoko Ono did in the ’60s with peace; they started to sell peace like a bar of soap, and they did a good job and made a difference to people, me being one of them.”

I was not a child of the 1960s. I was a child in the 1960s, so although I’ve read about John and Yoko’s peacework, I didn’t experience it. But peace like a bar of soap grabbed me. Of all the consumer products filmmaker Kaye could have chosen, he chose soap.

It’s been in existence forever. Its purpose is to clean things and keep things clean. A lot of people on Earth use soap. It can also be a slippery little tyke. Peace is a lot like a bar of soap.

It has been a topic for discussion forever. A goal to reach for, forever. It can both clean up relations and keep them clean. A lot of people on Earth aspire to peace. Also, peace can feel slippery, like it’s within our reach and then it’s not.

I like to think of peace as a long-running undercurrent in our world. The stuff of the normal, the everyday, like soap. When was the last time you used soap? On your hair this morning? Doing dishes? Washing your clothes? Car? Kids? Soap is relatively ubiquitous.

So’s peace, if we’ll make the tiny, worthwhile effort to remember peace is available. John and Yoko also said, “Give peace a chance.”

Here’s what I say: Until peace is as everyday an assumption as soap, we have to keep making the effort to remember it. Oh yeah, we’ll say, there’s always peace. As quotidian and assumptive as the presence of soap.

Let peace consume me, let peace consume you, let peace consume us. Let peace be.