Chapter 20: Turning Point
by Peace Dude

       I was in the garden when Angel returned from the meeting with Skyler.  I heard the cab pull up and I brushed the dirt off and went to greet her.  “Angel, honey,” I called down to her as she dashed up the path to our bungalow.  She didn’t hear me, and as I called again I saw the panic in her face as she stared blindly ahead.  Something was up.

       By the time I reached the bungalow door I found her crying in the middle of our bedroom floor, holding a mostly-empty sack.

       “Angel,” I whispered.

       She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears and her lips were trembling.  I rushed over and hugged her.   “Merle, it’s all gone... it’s all over...”

       I held her, and rocked us softly and gently.  “Angel, calm down, honey.  Just breathe, slowly.  We’ll work it out, whatever it is.  Tell me what’s wrong.”

       “They’ve got all the money in the world, Merle...”  She broke into sobs again.  “And we’ve got nothing left -- it’s all my fault.”

       Then she told me that she’d never counted our money.  As soon as we had arrived in Costa Rica back in January, she stashed it all in our closet.  Every week she just took out what we needed for the week’s budget.  “Every time I reached the end of one of the bags, I’d put it back in the closet, I guess, sort of figuring the angels would fill it back up.  But they’re all empty and this is the last one. This is all we have left, Merle!”

       I tried to comfort her.  It certainly wasn’t her fault.  “Jimmy will figure it out.  Jesse’s got tons of money left, I’m sure.  It’ll be fine.”

       Except, it wasn’t. We called an emergency financial meeting, and teleconferenced in some of our biggest Peace Centers.  Angel bravely delivered the bad news.  Then Jimmy followed suit with a sobering update of his own.  Apparently there wasn’t enough left in Jesse’s trust fund to make it through the summer at our current pace.   Everything would have to be cut to the bone. 

       Jimmy was going to have to eliminate the funding to the 120 Peace Centers.  We'd helped them set up, and they’d done so many amazing things so far -- coordinated events in their surrounding communities, distributed literature, set up volunteer and service programs to put peace in action, and they’d coordinated no less than fifteen Peace Bus Tours, which were crisscrossing the globe.  But now, the Peace Centers would have to survive on their own.  Somehow.

       The Peace On Earth Arts Center still hadn’t made a profit with any of the books or CDs.  We’d have to close down the workshops for the summer, and maybe the fall, too.  The marketing and distribution was really the biggest drain on our resources.  We’d keep them listed on the websites, but no more advertising.

       The CountUP column was by far the biggest financial drain.  We had hoped that a major newspaper chain or TV network would pick it up and pay to run it in syndication.  You would think they’d see how it would be an asset after we’d built up a huge following, but only a few dozen local papers were running it as a column and not a paid advertisement, and only because we let them run it for free.  We’d continue to feed it to the freebies and feature it on our websites, but that’s it -- we couldn’t pay another dime to keep it in the major papers. 

       The One Day In Peace concert tour was already committed and too close to cancel, and Artie and Jesse’s team were just about ready to set out on their Peace Bus tour.  We’d have to scale them both down, but they seemed essential to the campaign.  So did the Peace Proclamation and Peace Education programs the Kindness Kids were spearheading.  We’d have to cut down on the prizes we were offering to the kids who convinced their Mayors, Governors and Heads of State to support One Day In Peace, but the education programs would have to continue. Educating kids and adults about ways to create and practice peace is the only way we can really transform our world.

       I have to admit, it did feel like someone had let the air out of our tires.  Over the next few weeks all my mantras seemed to be failing me and I found it hard to continue to be Mr. Positivity.  Even my wand seemed to offer me no comfort.

       Then August 4th came, and true to his word, Skyler’s coalition launched their countdown in an unprecedentedly coordinated media-hyped all-out global gala celebration with tons of freebies and the biggest celebrities inviting the world to join in.  It seemed everybody was suddenly talking about the countdown to “Peace Day, January 1.”

       Of course we had mixed feelings, but our spirits were lifted overall.  It was amazing to see the newspapers and TV news discussing the possibility or impossibility of a day of peace on earth -- and telling the stories about kids and grownups who were using the countdown to build closer communities.  It was inspiring to overhear people debating it on the plane, or on a bus or at the next table at a restaurant.

       With the world’s sudden interest in peace, suddenly we were getting sales for the Peace On Earth Arts Center’s books and CDs, too.   Not a lot, but a lot more than we had been getting.  Maybe it would work out after all.  For a while there, everyone seemed to have caught the positivity bug.

 


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Table of Contents | Preface | Ch 1

| Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 |
Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 |Ch 10 | Ch 11 |
Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14 | Ch 15 | Ch 16 | Ch 17 |
Ch 18 | Ch 19 | Ch 20 | Ch 21 | Ch 22 | Ch 23 |
Ch 24 | Ch 25 | Ch 26 | Ch 27 | Ch 28 | Ch 29

ONE DAY IN PEACE
A Novel about creating humanity's first day of peace
Robert Alan Silverstein

The People For Peace Project


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May Peace Prevail On Earth