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Becky's Peace Van So I wake up on the morning of 8/21/2002 and in the driveway is a van with some kind of top on it and with different colored paintings and scripts from front to back and top to bottom. The driver's side door is open but nobody seems to be around. I put my shoes on to walk over to see who it might be, at Peace Hostle Amelia you never know, and when I looked closer I can't believe what I am seeing. It is an amazing collection of pictures and scripts that reminded me of the "Hippy" days of my youth. There is nobody stirring and I did not want to wake anybody up so I just looked at the license plate. It was from Oregon so I just figured it was somebody I knew from the Hiroshima Flame walk. I went back to my house and figured that whenever whoever it was woke up they would come and get me. A little later Tyler comes in the kitchen door! What an uplift in spirit this gave me. He tells me that the van is Becky's and she is still asleep. I told Tyler that I would make them some breakfast and when they were settled to come on over to my kitchen. At breakfast Becky related the story of the "Becky's Peace Van" to me. She and Tyler just decided to paint the van with whatever came to mind. As their journey progressed from Portland to Peace Hostle Amelia they would stop at places, rest areas etc, when they just felt like it and begin painting more stuff on the van. The people at these places would come over and conversations would take place. Becky and Tyler would invite the folks to join in the painting and they did. All of the participants really enjoyed doing it and one commented that "they hadn't done anything artistic in a long time" and another commented that "they really enjoyed painting the van". Becky said "At one place we stopped we went into an Art Supply Store to buy more supplies. When we came out there were two little boys gazing at the van. I told the boys that when their mom came back we would ask her if they could help paint. When she came out she said it was ok and the boys started painting. She told me that she had just been through a divorce and that she and the kids had just relocated from Alaska to Montana. One of the boys was using green paint and, in addition to painting the van, had also painted himself. We gave the boys some paint supplys and they left with mom smiling. They seemed very happy with their experience." Becky continued "One man saw what we were doing and gave us some money to buy more paint with. He said he appreciated what we were doing and wanted to help us continue to do it." Every place they stopped they had the same sort of experience. With no agenda, with no preaching, with no judgement our two dear friends spread love, peace and happiness to everyone they came in contact with. It is a shinning example of what we must all do to bring the world together in love and peace. In Tyler's words "Creativity yields peace".