Home

Contact Us

Hotels

Tours

Shops

Restaurants

Istanbul? Yes, Istanbul.

Karen-Claire Voss No 28 March 2003

Dear Reader,

I’m late with the column—again—and my head is still turning and turning about this bloody war in Iraq.  All the efforts to halt it came to nothing and bombing began this morning.  That must mean it’s time for those of us who care to do something, but what? 

The main topic of this column is breath, so the censors, if indeed there are any, can relax.  Of course, it’s going to take me a bit to actually get to the part where I talk about breath, but bear with me.  I’ll get there.  I said that the censors could relax because I’m not about to advocate a revolution or anything like that.  Well, I am going to advocate a kind of revolution, but it isn’t the kind that will upset anyone.  My idea is way beyond politics.

 The idea came to me when someone forwarded an email to me about a speech that Dr. Robert Muller made.  Robert Muller is the former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, and is now Chancellor emeritus of the University of Peace in Costa Rica.  At a ceremony in San Francisco where he was being honored for his writings about peace and his work in the United Nations, Dr. Muller, now eighty years old, said:

 He continued by saying that as all this was going on, new alliances are being formed. For example, we have seen that Russia and China are both against this war.  They are actually on the same side.  It is also a fact that perhaps for the first time in history, people are actually protesting a war that has not yet begun.  Someone commenting on Muller’s speech pointed out that now, “The largest peace demonstrations in the history of the world are taking place!”  

 I really appreciated his remarks and was especially struck by Dr. Muller’s concluding remark:  “So this is a miracle. This is what 'waging peace' looks like."

 “Waging peace.”  A really good phrase.  I certainly hadn’t thought of the current situation in these terms before, and I continued to think about the implications of it for a few days.  At the same time, always in the back of my mind, I was thinking about what to write for this month’s column.  Then, just this morning, I received another email with a link to what the sender described as a very beautiful website.  I visited it, it was indeed very beautiful, but it was only after what I found on this site came together with this very powerful idea of waging peace, that I finally saw what I had to do for this column.   

The site takes a few minutes to load but once it’s up you watch a series of phrases about peace, all of them appearing against a background of multi-colored spirals. (1) The most significant phrase is this one: 

Breathing is peace

Here the words go in and out just like breath does.  Then we are told to imagine everyone in the world breathing.  It continues like that for a while and then closes and gives you the option of forwarding the link to friends.  I forwarded it to two dear friends of mine. (2)  

What is breath?  Regular readers know very well how much I love etymology and it turns out the etymology of the word breath is really something.  I actually did a short study of the etymology of the word breath a few years ago.  I won’t reproduce all of it here, but some of it is interesting.

 Start with the fact that the words ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ are connected to each other.  Beyond that, there is a whole cluster of related meanings etymologically connected with those words.  For example there is the word inspired, meaning the act of being inspired, or something conveyed to the mind when under extraordinary influ­ence; aspiration, meaning to hope for something; and inspiration, meaning, the act of inspiring, the drawing in of breath, influence emanating from any object, the state of being.

 That was a noun form for just one of the related words.  The verbs are even more incredible.  ‘Inspire’ means:  to (literally) breathe in, to breathe into, and to draw in breath, to inhale air into the lungs. It also means to communicate divine instructions to, to infuse ideas or poetic spirit into, and to animate in general.  Taking this a bit further, let’s think about the synonyms for the verb ‘inspire’: please, gladden, delight, encourage, enjoy, hearten, animate, enliven, brighten, cheer up, incite, liven, quicken, resuscitate, vivify; support, bolster, amplify, encourage, en­hance, enhearten, hearten, increase, reassure, strengthen, excite, stimulate, arouse, electrify, fire, incite, rouse, spark, tantalize, thrill, titillate, turn on, whet; convince, persuade, affect, assure, impel, incense, induce, influence, instigate, motivate, move, pressure, prompt, stir, sway, talk into, touch, win over; instigate, provoke, agitate, anger, arouse, encourage, foment, ignite, incite, induce, inflame, invoke, motivate, mus­ter, prod, propel, raise, set, sent on spur, stimulate, stir, urge; educate, train, coach, communicate, condition, convey, cultivate, develop, discipline, drill, edify, enlighten, exercise, explain, groom, imbue, impart, implant, improve, inculcate, indoctrinate, inform, infuse, inseminate, instill, instruct, perfect, practice, prepare, ready, school, teach, tutor. 

And we mustn’t forget the synonyms for the noun ‘inspiration‘: motivation, encouragement, the act of imbuing with courage, incitement, stimulation . . .

 Now, finally, back to the main topic—breath.  Remember that all of these qualities and actions are connected with breathing.  Breathe in, breathe out . . . Breathe in, find peace in yourself.  Breathe out; bring peace to the place you are in.

Well, there you are.  Wage peace.  Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out . . .

LIFE is this.  And LIFE goes on. 

NOTES:

1.  The site address is:  http://www.attractinggenuinelove.com/peace1.html