It was the autumn of 1967, and we’d just come off the Summer of Love. My buddy Marc and I had searched for a rumored “Love-in” somewhere in L.A.’s Griffith Park, but never found it. I was enamored with the peace symbol, with the phrase “make love, not war,” with the placing of flowers in soldiers’ rifles (preferably by pretty girls with daisy chains in their hair). I wasn’t sure how to get to this mystical place called Peace, but I desperately wanted to be there. I sensed that the hippie movement hadn’t found it, that they were only chanting about it. Our president certainly didn’t know the way, but neither did Ho Chi Minh. Still, the Peace Movement was something. And something was better than nothing, right?
When I heard about the peace marches in Washington, DC, Europe and the UK, I wanted to ride that wave, instead of floating along in the brackish backwater of my little suburban high school. But I never did.
Yet it didn’t matter. Because peace, real peace, I eventually found out, wasn’t born in the Summer of Love or in the fall protests of 1967. Real peace was born long before that…
In a town called Bethlehem.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. So do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
~John 14:27
Amen and hallelujah!
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Absolutely. Thanks, Mitch.
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Bingo! It is the same peace we so desperately need today.
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Exactly.
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Finding peace in the bible is amazing 🙂
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Amen, Mitch. There is only one source of peace. Happy Thanksgiving. God bless!
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And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, Nancy!
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I was born in January of that year so a little too young to join in…but my heart was there.
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Beautiful, Mitch! Thank you for sharing…and I hope you’re having a terrific day. 😉
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Thank you, and likewise, Victoria.
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Amen Mitch and not even all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could stop that peace which God sent!
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Indeed, Pete. Happy Thanksgiving, my friend.
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what can you remember of year 61
john 39:52 says thou shall fall unto the mountains
praise the lord your beautiful made
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How right you are, Mitch. Beautiful.
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The popular peace symbol was actually an anti-war symbol in the late 50’s. I will never wear it, because peace is what you are for, not what you’re against.
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how was life in the autumn of 61
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Well, this happened to me in ’61, Rudy: https://mitchteemley.com/2022/04/12/the-jesus-lady/
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john 39:52 says praise the lord you are made beautiful for you shall fall upon the mountains of israel
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