What is Peace?

Peace. What exactly is peace? Sure, it's no war, no fighting, no conflict. But I think peace is more than just that. I think peace is caught here in this picture. Peace is just living and being. Goofing off with your friends, and enjoying life. No one to tell you no, or ruin these moments. We all deserve this peace of mind, this time with our friends, the people who make us laugh. Life is precious. Enjoy every minute of it, and don't be afraid to go out and be yourself. As Oscar Wilde once said, "Life is too short to be taken seriously."

Example of Everyday Conflict

Here's a video that my friends and I created about conflict. As you can see, Jackson (the short one) puts his arm around me, and Jordan doesn't like that and starts to beat him up, creating conflict. There are many better ways to settle our problems, dear readers. For example, Jordan could have talked it out with Jackson, which would be a more peaceful solution. Hope you learned from this scenario! :)

Is peace always desirable?

When life gets hectic, and out of hand, peace is important. It is not good to get too stressed.

In math, when you're figuring out a math problem, you want all the numbers to work together peacefully, and easily. Example:

Izzi: You did that problem wrong! It's 4x.
Mara: No, you did the multiplication wrong. It's actually 3x.
Izzi: Nonono, check your math.
Mara:...carry the 1...see?
Izzi:Oh ok you're right.
Mara: *smiles triumphantly*

In this case, you have peace, and everyone is happy. If we had kept fighting and Izzi hadn't admitted that she was wrong, we would not have peace, which is desirable in this situation.

Peace in the stock market, however, is not wanted. It is good for the economy to go up and down, and if it was peaceful, it would be at a stand still and people would not make money.

In music, peace is desirable, so the piece being played sounds nice, and is not blending into an icky mush of incompatible sounds.

In Izzi's case, when she gets on a sugar high and runs around, chasing us and trying to kill us, and the sounds of terrorized shrieks can be heard down the street, peace is definitely desired by us, the chased, but not by Izzi the vicious murderer. She enjoys running down the street, terrifying all she glares at.

Is conflict ever a good or necessary thing?

I believe that conflict is necessary sometimes, for example, when my sister and I are fighting we need to talk it out, although sometimes it gets a little more violent. Most of the time we work it out, escaping with little or no scratches, our problem resolved. If someone had interfered, our issue would not have been solved, and we would have remained annoyed with each other for a while after that, or as Heidi would say, "for a really loooooong long time."
I do not think however, that conflict on a bigger scale, such as taking issues to the point of war, is necessary. There are better ways to resolve problems. WWII was a different case. If the United States and its allies hadn't fought back against Hitler, we would all be annihilated except for a handful of "perfect people." It was important to take a stand against evil.
In narratives and stories, conflict is definitely a good thing. It keeps the story moving, which keeps the interest of the reader. Characters are usually not completely good or completely bad. They are more complex than that, and have little conflicts within themselves, which makes the story believable.
In competitions and in sports, conflict helps to push people, to motivate them to do better. Some people are very competitive, and do better with conflict and obstacles to overcome.
There are also some conflicts that I would rather not deal with, such as conflict with my hair. Every morning my hair and I fight, as I'm trying to brush out the knots from the night before. I have learned to put my hair up, and I suppose this conflict is a good thing, since I learned from these incidents, though I wish I didn't have to deal with it. And going bald is NOT a solution to this conflict, for all of you out there who have just grabbed a pair of scissors to chop off my hair as a favor to me.
In short, a little conflict never hurt anybody, but too much conflict can hurt everybody.

Is peace possible, or is conflict inevitable?

I believe that peace is possible, in different forms. Peace as in no bickering and verbaly fighting, peace as in no punching or rough housing, and peace as in no war or global conflicts. The bigger the scale, the harder it is to attain, and we have yet to see world peace. I highly doubt that we will achieve world peace, based on human nature and past experience. People can't always agree, and won't. If we always agreed, we'd all be wonderbread, as Mrs. Berg would say. All the same and BLAND. Being different is part of who we are, and we all have the freedom of different opinions. One example of this is The Declaration of Independence. Conflict was inevitable, as the Patriots disagreed with King George III, as people will always have separate views on things. Peace was possible once everyone got together and wrote the Declaration of Independence. It didn't please everybody, but the majority was satisfied.
Peace on a smaller scale IS possible, though conflict is also innevitable; there will always be fighting and disagreements. It is best to settle them peacefully. But it peace is a good thing to strive for, however big or small the scale.