No one can. Not Buddha. Not Mohammed. Not even Jesus.
Their godliness may have made them deserving vessels into which we deposited our faith and belief in something more than the struggle of the moment, from which we can draw hope, strength and direction through life's storms.
But they could not wave a magic wand and have peace suddenly spread across the land or fill the hearts and minds of men (or women).
Today I hope you will allow me to share some thoughts on a topic that is quite elusive to many of us – peace. I am not referring to the peace of nations, though the cloud of international strife hangs over our world, threatening to grow darker with each passing moment. No, the peace of which I speak is that which pervades us all, if we will but call upon it to come into our lives.
Peace. Pax. Pas. By so many names it is known around the world. Yet so few of us truly know peace. Yes, we have periods without personal conflict, but truly, is that peace? Do those times mean we are at peace within ourselves? Or are those moments we think of as peace just temporary lulls in the storms of the outer world?
Occasionally an issue or topic will stir some emotion or passion. I've realized that just writing a few lines can help integrate the energy and settle uneasiness. So, I will avail myself of the opportunity to express some thoughts from time to time, seeking primarily my own sense of ease.
"I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives. This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington -- we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have."
- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger quoted in Time, May 22, 2009
Christmas comes early, Governor. You can print your own money. Fiscally solvent North Dakota is doing it...and so can California. Now!
“It was horrible. Horrible! Like lightning it struck. No one was prepared. The shelves in the grocery stores were empty. You could buy nothing with your paper money.” – Harvard University law professor Friedrich Kessler on the Weimar Republic hyperinflation (1993 interview)
Some worried commentators are predicting a massive hyperinflation of the sort suffered by Weimar Germany in 1923, when a wheelbarrow full of paper money could barely buy a loaf of bread. An April 29 editorial in the San Francisco Examiner warned:
“With an unprecedented deficit that’s approaching $2 trillion, [the President’s 2010] budget proposal is a surefire prescription for hyperinflation. So every senator and representative who votes for this monster $3.6 trillion budget will be endorsing a spending spree that could very well turn America into the next Weimar Republic.”1
“Success is a state of mind. Failure is a state of mind. Wellness is a state of mind. Ill health is a state of mind.
Everything you do is a state of mind. Your entire reality is a state of mind. But really – what is state of mind? State of mind really is simply choice and focus.
Thank you. I love you.”
(c) Copyright 2008, 2009 Tom Massari. All Rights Reserved.
I can't give you peace. 
Thomas Jefferson was a guy who also talked about individual self-determination as the key to creating a better world.
Some worried commentators are predicting a massive hyperinflation of the sort suffered by Weimar Germany in 1923, when a wheelbarrow full of paper money could barely buy a loaf of bread. An April 29 editorial in the San Francisco Examiner warned:
