World Peace Starts at the Salty Dog with Dave Kemmerly

We ended the summer the same way we started it this year--listening to Dave Kemmerly entertain at the Salty Dog deck on Hilton Head Island, SC.

As I sat there looking over the pier, watching the birds in the sky dance to the music Dave was making, a familiar feeling of peace settled over my soul. It is always the same when we sit on this deck.

Looking around, I watched people chat with friends and with strangers. Dancing children made new friends to dance with in the moonlight. Families danced together. People were singing along with Dave. Many races, ages, and I suppose religions, were represented in the group. However, it appeared that no one was thinking about those things at that moment.

And, isn't that how we are going to achieve world peace? When we find what we have in common and celebrate it? So what do we have in common? You can find it on that wooden deck covered by plastic chairs and tables. Family. That is what we have in common all over the world.

Worldwide we need to focus on what is best for our families. There is nothing wrong with ambition and achievement. But greed and power-grabbing are dangerous roads to travel. I thought of some ways everyone can promote world peace, based on my observations that night:

• Discover what gives you joy in life. Pursue it with your whole heart.
• Focus on your family--give them your time.
• Make decisions based on what will best serve your family unit, not necessarily you as an individual.
• Create time to play and act like a child, no matter how old you are.
• See other people as people who have families they love and who love them.
• Make an effort to find the commonality in everyone you meet.
• Celebrate the fact that we are all different.
• Celebrate, also, the fact that we are all the same in many ways.

That night at the Salty Dog, there was no fighting, no focusing on areas of disagreement, no selfishness. That night there was family unity, a feeling that others on the deck could be your friends, and just plain fun. That is what so much of the world is missing.

But you can find it at the Salty Dog listening to Dave, or at your own version of the Dog wherever you live, even if it is only for a few hours. It is there somewhere. It is worth the search.