Appreciating Peace – Introduction

Peace from the Appreciative Paradigm is the topic Joep C. de Jong and Daniel K. Saint have chosen for this issue. If we want to live in peace, we have to live in peace ourselves. Peace becomes possible when we can see and appreciate both the beauty and the suffering in those we might call enemy. That does not mean condoning behavior with which we may vehemently disagree. But it does mean seeing the humanity in the other. Peace is something that starts with(in) each of

us. As we view our world through an appreciative lens, we generate a positive, shared vision of the future, compelling us forward out of darkness into light. Perhaps Appreciative Inquiry’s highest purpose is in lighting the way to peace.