The peace-concept of the WorldWalk team is quite simple: the road to peace is a road through friendship and brotherhood. This simple principle has been explained various times, from various aspects here on the blog as well.
Now let’s see why this walking tour around the world is an effective way to present and to promote this idea.
by FERENC IVANICS
Spreading Our Message of Peace
Probably some heroic effort—like walking around the Earth—will catch many people’s attention. Along our trip we meet many of them, we get to know many of them. Their first questions are mostly about what we are doing, but right after those first few, comes the second group about the whys. Why? For peace. We believe in peace, we believe that global peace can be reached through the inner peace of small communities. And our belief is so strong that we undertook this world tour as peace activists, to share our ideas with as many people as we can. We managed to get the attention of some newspapers, tv- and radio-stations, so with the help of the people behind the media our message can reach even more individuals.
This blog is a method of spreading the message, too. There’s a small but effective community forming, which follows our adventures, shares our ideas. But it’s not just enough to spread the word; we need to convince the receivers about the genuineness of the message. The walking tour, our achievements might be able to do just that.
Test of Our Theory on Peace
Even if we would walk in ideal circumstances this tour would require the close co-operation of two men, since it poses their almost constant co-existence. Although we meat a lot of people we cannot build stronger bounds anywhere, due to the persistent peregrination. And of course the circumstances are never ideal. We frequently report about our problems here on the blog, but fortunately, so far we managed to settle most of these problems together. And this might serve as a proof of our ideas, we’re brothers, we’re friends, we’ve managed to live in harmony, we can keep our inner peace even when we’re in trouble. Europe and Africa have had many challenges in store for us, but we hold on. Of course we should thank for the help of our friends, relatives, strangers and less strangers who worried about us, our mission. Without their HELP we wouldn’t be here today.
In a few weeks we’ll move on to the USA and in a few months we’ll cross Mexico and Central America to arrive to South America. We’re determined, but we have our doubts as well. Will we be able to cope with the challenges of a new continent? If so, then we’ll give another proof of the correctness of our theory. And I’m sure we will.
Brothers and Friends: The Road to Peace
Many of you might think that for two brothers who are best friends as well, it’s child’s play to co-operate, to act in unity, to live in peace with each other. But this is not necessarily true, we have completely different personalities. My brother was born on the 27th of April, when spring is in its full swing, he’s an optimistic Taurus. I was born on the 23rd of October, mid-autumn, when the cold breath of winter is closing in. I’m a Libra, who tends to be melancholic and pessimistic, sometimes I can’t even enjoy the best moments of the present, ’cause I’m troubled by the future. When we get in serious trouble, I despair, I get apathetic, I almost get mad sometimes, István has to stand and to find ways to balance all this.
Due to his character, sometimes he gets carried away. He tries to cheer me up forgetting about the reality, his lips are smiling but his eyes are scared of my explosion. He tries to shock me out of my despair with promises that cannot be kept, plans than cannot be carried out. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes, as a result of these conversations we don’t speak to each other for a while... But usually, when our consciences are heavy (and I dream about booking some cheap flights to Honolulu and relax there a bit; of course that's not an option) we cannot maintain this state for long and we make up easily, we both give in and then feel relieved. We both have changed a lot since the beginning of the tour, we’ve got to know ourselves and each other better. Peregrination is a good way of discovering the world, our inner world as well.
Hence our fields of interest are distinct but complementary: I prefer spiritual stuff, my brother is more into the material world. I’m the one who bargains at the market, it’s my brother who makes a fire. I’m writing the text of this post, but it was my brother who found this cyber-cafe. That’s all, there are no mysterious secrets, just increasing patience and growing self-knowledge.
