Ｗｈａｔ ｍａｋｅｓ ｐｅａｃｅ

愛因斯坦說過：“武力不能帶來和平，只有互相理解才可以。”（Peace cannot be achieved through violence， it can only be attained through understanding.）這句話同樣也適用于一場爆發在男孩和女孩之間的戰爭。

Boys and girls always don’t get along. Some people might say that if a boy always makes fun of a girl or slightly beats her on the back and shoulder， it probably means he likes the girl. I did not know if the boy have ever liked me， but we were really arguing fiercely.

It is funny to read what my foreign teacher has written on my semester comments: try not to fight with any of your classmates even if you are angry with him. Several days after entering the first year of junior high school， I was assigned to the same oral English class with the boy. I cannot remember why we started to hate each other， but I guess there was no good reason for that. Maybe it was just because I said I did not like the way he dressed or he said he did not like the way I talked. Our wars happened everywhere. Not only did we throw objects， as small as erasers or as big as school bags， across desks and classrooms， but also we threw bad words back and forth. We backbit ten on each other. Our wars seemed to be endless. Whenever I felt I was hurt by what he had done， I would think a worse way to beat him back.

I thought his friends must not like me and he would not be welcomed by my clique. However， actually， we are just a source of their jokes. They didn’t understand why we beat each other and in fact we didn’t understand either. However，“a tooth for a tooth”! None of us would admit defeat by the other’s claiming of win.“Peace cannot be achieved through violence”. In revenge we just cannot end this way of“hating”each other.

When others felt lost to leave their friends as graduating from junior school， both of us felt happy because we thought this should be the end of our hatred. However， unfortunately，“enemies are walking on a narrow lane”， as a Chinese idiom said， which means people that hate each other will always meet. We happened to be assigned in the same class again in senior high school.

We were becoming mature. We did not want to be considered immature as shouting or poking fun at others. We ceased our fires for a while. Although this did not mean we were getting along， it at least provided a chance for us to stop to think.

I knew this“endless”war was all over when he broke my earphone. I felt surprised that I did not get angry with him. I believed he did that unintentionally. I did not think the young man would be too bored to have fun from deliberately making me unhappy. Maybe， a year before， he had taken my notebook without notice; or he just had broken my eraser by coincidence. Smiling， I said“never mind”to him. The amazement written on his face told me he should have sensed my amity. He responded with an even more awkward“smile”. Anyway， it should be a smile because you could not say he was doubting or angry.

I do not want to make a story from certain patterns， but this story really flowed to a happy ending. Our war was ended up with our becoming to understand each other. We even started to explain and say good for the other when rumors were around. In fact， He is such a good young man.

There must be much greater reasons， much more difficult than those boys and girls fairs， why people throw brooms back and forth. However， do people ever stop to think what they would gain from endless shots and brooms?“An eye for an eye， we will both die”， as Gandhi said.

編輯/孫櫟櫟