All that I could do in response was to shake my head.

      "Two people stood out nobly in this process of renewal surrounding the Peace of Westphalia," said Helen. "One of these was Johann Amos Comenius, the other was young Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz." Helen added that these people were a part of a large network of pioneers fighting for a common, universal, humanist goal. She called them her friends for that reason. She spoke about someone called Johann Skytte and his brilliant son Bengt Skytte, who were the teachers of Leibnitz, while John Skytte was also the educator of the great King Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden who became a part of this network. "And even then, with all their efforts at overturning of the war philosophers, it wasn't accomplished overnight," said Helen. She pointed out that it took over 30 years of persistent effort to overturn the craftily twisted lies of the philosophers of war, and to reestablish the idea of universal love. "That is the environment in which Leibnitz grew up, who became a part of the networks of European pioneers that created the intellectual foundation for the United States of America. I count them all as my friends. As I said, they achieved miracles. So I can't fault them for not going far enough. It would have required a major miracle to take this principle all the way to the grassroots level. It may still take a miracle today, to do that," she added.

      "And you are that miracle," I replied.

      "Oh, you!" she scolded me.

      "But it's true," I insisted.

      She blushed in response. Evidently, she knew that I was right.



      I was amazed at Helen's knowledge of history. I told her so. She explained that she was a history teacher in the old tradition, the Humbold tradition. She said that she was trying to relive in her own life the great breakthrough discoveries of the past, in order to experience the power of the fundamental principles that these pioneers had discovered. She said that all the pertinent historic dates were therefore also a part of her own personal history, and the names of the people involved where among the names of her ever widening circle of friends.

      She told me that her rediscovery of these people's concept of universal love has changed her life. "How then, can I not value their names?" she asked. "Their work is reflected in the way I look at myself, and the way I regard other people. It affects my whole life. I owe these people an immense debt of gratitude, and the best way to pay this debt is to remember their names and to move forward with their discoveries in my own life by applying them to transforming the world."

      "You make it sound so easy," I answered.

      "I make it sound as it really is," she replied instantly.

      She suggested that the problems of our world could all be easily solved. They are all easy problems. Oh, but to actually do it! That's hard. We are destroying our world, the West for money, the East for ideology, the empires for power. All this can be changed overnight. The institutions and the weapons that are destroying our human world were not God-sent or imposed by nature. Human beings have created them. Human beings also have the capacity to do away with them. Humanity has the power to eradicate the systems it creates, if the systems don't work for its benefit. Oh, but to step up to the plate and do it! That's hard. It took a hundred years to create the Renaissance, fifty years to destroy it with counter-ideologies, and thirty years to get it back. But all that was easy compared to what we face today.

      She asked me to consider this. After 5000 years of civilization we have not been able to rid ourselves of the ideals of empires and imperialism in their many forms. She suggested that this goal would eventually be achieved some day if we don't destroy our world with nuclear war before then.

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Stories about War from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche