Risk of loss of life . . .
Wear a hat and long-sleeved shirt against ticks and sunburn and cover your skin against frostbite. Don’t leave your toothpaste or bacon out where the black bears can smell it. Leaves of three, let me be. Stinging nettle. Geothermal activity–stay on the boardwalks. These are the dangers and adventures I associate with wilderness.
This sign in the Dreiborn area of the Eifel National Park made me think.
My husband’s parents played in the forest in Germany as children and found old tank parts and unexploded grenades. It felt very different to find one myself. I never understood what war on your own soil means.
I never understood . . .
I hope we never go there again . . .
My hope is in the generations that come, that they learn to hear each other with respect, to understand that we have differences that can’t be reconciled by force.
On the other hand, vulnerability can be the strongest defense we have, because it allows us to build bridges instead of walls.
What do you think? How do we go about making it possible for us to live in peace?
War and Peace for ages 9 to 12:
Can zany tactics save the world? I don’t know. The t-shirts and comic strips in Giant Trouble: The Mystery of the Magic Beans don’t feel “strong” enough for real life wars.
But what if force wasn’t the strongest thing in the world?
