THE MEANING OF PEACE

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
ISLAMABAD
mahtabbashir@gmail.com

Many moons ago there was a king who offered a prize to the artists who could paint and illustrate the best picture of peace. A lot of artist tried their luck to please the king. The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two that he short-listed and he had to choose only one again out of these two.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for the peaceful place with towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought it was a perfect picture of peace.

The second picture had mountains too, but these were rugged and bare. Above head was an angry sky from which a wild rain was falling and lightening played down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This looked terrible. When the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest… a perfect picture of peace.

Guess which of the picture won the prize? The kings chose the second picture. "Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart, and that's the real meaning of peace", the king explained.

Published in daily THE NATION on 11th April, 2002

MUHAMMAD MAHTAB BASHIR
ISLAMABAD
mahtabbashir@gmail.com