MEANING
Selling Love and Peace
Isn’t just for kids
Walking home from the farmers’ market, I followed the call of young children advertising their lemonade stand from their front lawn. On arrival, a boy of about 4 years old and his older sister welcomed me, displaying their wares including a small paper cup of lemonade, handmade bracelets, and second-hand costume jewelry.
I bought 2 cups of lemonade at $2 each, averaging one dollar per sip. It was proper lemonade, bits of lemony flesh floated with a mint leaf among a few ice cubes.
To encourage the tiny entrepreneurs, I selected a beaded bracelet, the beads threaded to spell ‘LoveandPeace’; a three-dollar find.
“What does ‘love and peace’ mean?” I asked the artist. She looked behind her to her mother and grandmother sitting on the stoop, resisting response.
“Well love is,” the girl confirmed “…love.”
“And peace? What is peace?”
They stumbled. Hands flailing in explanation, the young boy declared, “Peace is when nobody bothers you too much.”
That sounded about right. No doubt, this tiny diplomat would head to the United Nations.
“And you can keep the cup,” he added. “For free.”
