Granite Peace Pole
Click photos to enlarge
This granite peace pole uncharacteristically does not have engraving on the pole itself, other than the name of the artist and the year of installation in small type. Instead the translations are on the six granite monoliths around it. On each of the monoliths the phrase "May peace prevail on earth" is engraved in a different language on each side for a total of twelve translations.
The walkways and stepping stone
paths begin at different places but end at the same place - at the peace pole.
This provides different journeys to peace. The monoliths around it double as benches on which people can sit
to contemplate in peace.
During 2010 and 2011 I expect to take more photos in order to let the photos explain more of the positive aspects of this peace pole. In the meantime, as food for thought for someone planning a new peace pole, I'll leave a thought about a positive aspect I wasn't able to accomplish.
Leaving a Legacy
I had wanted a granite pole that was long enough for there to be as much pole below ground as there is above ground. Then it would be floating in the earth, like a long fishing bobber that stands upright no matter what waves rock it. A peace pole constructed in that way would outlast Stonehenge. That applies to the monoliths surrounding it as well.
Cement is less expensive
than granite, so
the rule of thumb is to put cement underground, because no one sees what is
underground anyway. But cement lasts only 400 years. To truly speak to the ages, would
one not want to design a peace pole to outlast our civilization? 10,000 years?
Longer? With the same amount of granite below ground as above, long after our civilization
is forgotten, that pole still would be there.
Sites
The
people in charge of the budget liked landscaping more than longevity, so it has
a cement foundation rather than a granite one (that saved $10,000 USD). Still, I did manage to get three feet of
granite underground simply by burying a few feet anyone else would have kept
above ground. The
bottom is cut square to create as much granite ballast underground as possible.
In 400 years when the cement around it has become powder, it still will
remain upright for a long time.
Earthquakes and wind events during mushy springtimes might occur only every 500 years, but that is the year that it will fall down, after the cement foundation has turned to powder. The people in charge of parks might maintain it by standing it back up for as long as we are a civilization, which I would imagine would be some thousands of years, but it's after that for which I had wanted to plan.
I do not mean to sound disappointed. Longevity isn't everything. For the thousands of years I expect this one will stand, I am happy to have been part of bringing it about. I said these things about longevity only to put the thought into the general conversation, so that someone somewhere might make that kind of longevity a more important part of the plan for their peace pole than it otherwise would have been.
This peace pole still is standing in Beach Acres Park near Cincinnati, Ohio.
The languages
The twelve translations of the phrase "May Peace Prevail on Earth" used in this installation are Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.