‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Conflict: The Doorway to Greatness
Peace House Community - A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTEBY Marti Maltby Dave and Ray Davies, the brothers who have led the British band The Kinks since the 1960s, have a famously volatile relationship. Even though they managed to stay in a band together for over 40 years, they often despised each other and had explosive arguments. They addressed their relationship in the song Hatred (A Duet), which featured the lines:You wanna be my friend, well it’s too lateMy love for you has turned to hateAnd I think that it’s a permanent conditionYou say you wanna make the peaceSmile and turn the other cheekI can’t put myself in such a weak positionNow I’m willing to accept this fateYou and me just can’t cohabitateWe agree to hate and that’s our last decision That’s just the first verse. The rest of the song features many creative ways of expressing the same feelings. But the Davies brothers don’t continually make war. When they performed the song on The Tonight Show in [...]
Peace House Community – Dec. ’23
Learn from the Ants By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby As a kid, I used to be fascinated by anthills. I constantly wondered how animals with such tiny brains and no obvious ways of communicating on a large scale could create such a complex society. It wasn’t until I grew old enough for deep theological reflection that I realized my view of the ants was probably about the same as God’s view of us. If I looked down on the Twin Cities from ten miles up, I’d see a lot of little beings with limited intelligence and no obvious leader running into each other, but somehow managing to survive.Obviously, there are some differences between me and God, so the analogy doesn’t really work. God created us and is all-knowing, and has the power to guide the course of history, so if He (or She or Them or It, depending on your beliefs) wants us to survive, He/She/They/It can help us out. That thought comforts me, because I don’t have any faith we would survive long on our own. We’ve shown [...]
Simple Pleasures
Peace House Community - A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby Lately, the negativity of the world has affected me more than usual. Over the last few months, several supporters and members at Peace House Community have died or experienced some form of trauma. World news has been bleak. The mornings are darker and colder. Sadly, I’m one of the fortunate ones, as I know many people have to deal with more problems than me. I recently asked some friends what helps them cope when they start feeling overwhelmed. As a group, we had a difficult time finding an answer. It turns out that, if there’s one thing that will increase someone’s sadness, it’s finding out that there’s no clear antidote to sadness. Eventually, I did experience something that lifted my mood. Peace House Community held an anniversary event where we went out of our way to say thank-you to our supporters. In the past, anniversary parties have been a combination of “Thank-You Party” and [...]
