Last Fall, we attended a CISV (Children’s International Summer Village) reunion for McKinley who had gone to Belgium the prior summer with other 11 year olds from around the world. The point of CISV is to foster a greater understanding of each other and promote world peace. McKinley met kids from 11 other countries and it was an eye-opening experience for him spending a month in Belgium with them.

Throughout the reunion afternoon, we heard from kids (of all ages) about their experiences and we all did some group activities and singing. Towards the end of the afternoon, we were separated from the kids and they went outside to do an “active” activity and the adults were (reluctantly) left in the room to do their own activity.

The activity we were assigned was to come up with a poem to demonstrate “What does peace mean?” We were celebrating an International Day of Peace highlighted by an organization called Peace One Day.

We divided into four small groups of 4-5 people each and worked with scant instructions to come up with a poem about peace. Can you hear the collective groan? Ugh. Group work? But, I came to hear the kids talk. I think most of the parents came to hear about the kids’ experience and learn more because they got nothing from their own child about their summer experiences…(or at least not much out of their own child!)

As we looked at each other uncomfortably and wondered what the heck we needed to do to come up with a coherent poem, we introduced ourselves. After that we tentatively asked the question of what peace meant to each of us. A few minutes in, Mike volunteered to be our scribe.

We started brainstorming and throwing ideas out. But, Mike wasn’t writing anything down. We brainstormed a little more, finally Suzy, who was visibly upset by now, asked Mike if he was going to write anything down. He wrote down a few words over the next 10 minutes or so, which were mostly song titles. His notes:

PEACE

• Blowing in the Wind
• Let It Be
• Not Yesterday
• War War What is it Good For
• Yesterday

• Ice melting
• Bringing down the war
• Flowing down a river

We were given a five-minute warning and everyone was visibly uncomfortable with how this was going and wondering how everything we had just brainstormed would be morphed into a poem. At this point, I volunteered to write and capture some of what we had talked about. People started throwing out ideas again and repeating some of what we had said already. These are the remaining notes:

• Frozen in ice -> carrying around a burden
• Ice breakers/breaking the ice – fears frozen in time, forget yesterday, forget the fear
• Cold hearted
• Melting fears away – a spark, a smile
•                                     – a first, brave step
• Daylight breaks, melting begins
• A new day, a fresh start
• Each day is a new opportunity
• Working together, melting your fears
• Ice melting into water
• Don’t forget the river
• Go with the flow
• Forget the fear, find the peace

People in our group were trying to capture the essence of letting go of the fear of someone different from us and taking a first step to reach out to those different than us. So many wars had been fought over fear of other’s viewpoint or different beliefs and that if we just understood each other’s point of view, war wouldn’t happen.

By now time was up and we still didn’t have a poem. I said I would take our notes and fashion a poem (as long as the other three groups read their poems first.) I think I heard Suzy audibly sigh in relief. Everyone else shuffled with their chairs back into a large circle.

The other three groups read their poems aloud and it was impressive to hear what everyone came up with. I wish had been able to collect all of the poems to share, but I only found one lying on a chair at the end of the day. Here is one I found:

Peace One Day

People living in harmony

Everyone contributing their

Attitude of love

Caring for

Each other

Open and tolerant

Never judging or

Excluding one another

Differences

All together

You and me

As they read their poems aloud, I tried to pull out a few phrases and capture the point of our discussion. Here is our Peace One Day poem from September 15, 2013 by Suzy, Mike, Peter, Sonya & Phil:

PEACE

Frozen in ice                           – fears from the past

   – fears from today

   – fears about tomorrow

The melting begins             – daylight breaks

                                – a spark

                                – a smile

                                – a first, brave step

The river flows                     – working together

                                – at every opportunity

                                – forget the fear

                                – forget the pain of the past

                                – find the peace

All this group activity did for me was to reinforce that I really don’t like group work when it isn’t done well. When group work is done well (everyone has a defined role and completes it on time) it can be poetry in motion. Group work is a little like sausage making, no one really wants to see it being done, but they sure like the final product!

I am thankful that McKinley participated in a CISV program and that he had the chance to meet 60 people from around the world. I am also thankful that during this time he learned a little more about how children have it in their countries and that he does have a lot (for which he should be thankful). I also hope he learned a little more about fostering peace and understanding throughout the world.

Happy International Peace Day!