Elise Boulding was a Quaker sociologist and author credited as a major contributor to creating the academic discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies. She wrote extensively on topics ranging from family as a foundation for peace to Quaker spirituality to reinventing the international “global culture.” She viewed listening at the key to advancing world peace and nonviolence. A major theoretical focus for Boulding was the idea of peace as a daily process, challenging the idea of peace as something that is dull and static. In much of what she wrote, she advocated for the rights of women and children, and the influence that the family can have in setting the foundation for a culture of peace.
For today, take a few minutes to reflect on these words:
“We’re never going to have respectful and reverential relationships with the planet- and sensible policies about what we put in the air, the soil, the water – if very young children don’t begin learning about these things literally in their houses, backyards, streets and schools. We need to have human beings who are oriented that way from their earliest memories.”
40 Days with Peacemakers 