Granite Peace Pole

This granite peace pole uncharacteristically does not have the message engraved on the pole itself. 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.

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The walkways and paths around it 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 to sit to contemplate in peace.

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.

Damaging 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.

Longevity isn't everything. For the thousands of years I expect this one to stand, I am happy to have been part of creating it. I said these things about longevity only so that someone somewhere might make that kind of longevity a more important part of the plan for their peace pole than they otherwise would have.

This peace pole still is standing in Beach Acres Park near Cincinnati, Ohio.