The Prodical son

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday November 28, 2007 08:47 by Sean Ramsey - BIH fmuldowney at yahoo dot com

6,000km walker for peace returns to Ireland

After the marathon walk for peace across Australia, Mr Frank Muldowney, will return to Ireland in early December.

From a young age, I always believed peace will be everywhere some day, because it is most wanted. I was innocent of course and indeed growing up did doubt my own beliefs. In 1985 at 19, I suffered from a brain haemorrhage and everything changed. A normal life was not set for me now, which was a blessing as from here on I could live my own way, following my own heart, my own thoughts and my imaginations. My health improved by travellng to many places and I felt the desire for peace was in everyones heart, in every country, but no one knows how to achieve it and because of it, it is never discussed. I felt I had to try to find away to talk about it and bring that deep desire for peace again, but I didn't know how.

After 35 years of seeking for an answer, I awoke one night at 3am, with a brainwave childlike idea, of introducing the immortal, invincible peacemaker across the world, to announce world peace is coming. To make it even more challenging for me, this peacemaker is invisible, can only be seen by the presence of his own wheelchair and his name is Harvey! These thoughts came from little memories in my youth, Harvey the invisible 6 ft rabbit from the film that my father loved, the wheelchair that I was fascinated about years ago when I was in hospital and the core of this thinking came from a quote that I had forgotten:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the entire world" - Albert Einstein.

To create something that doesn't exist, one must believed in it first. We never had world peace before, so I knew I must believe in this in the future, and live that it is a matter of time. Harvey, fits nicely into that quotation above, as Harvey is anything good, that is imagined. This replies to everyone, every dream every hope is invisible until you make it real.

This was the proof I needed, that when the human mind want's something, it always becomes real, from the desire to fly, to space craft, to electricity to the internet. So now in the same way, I decided to ignore my pride, make a fool of myself if needed and get as many people as possible to talk about Harvey my invisible friend. Nothing becomes real until it is being discussed, so I started this walk across Australia, to introduce Harvey, and see how far will it go.

I have now walked 6,000 kilometres across Australia pushing Harvey. I managed to speak about peace, with a smile, in the newspapers, the radio and television. Not bad for a working classe, ex-credit union worker who lived in a quiet parish in Dublin. I never knew what I was capable of doing until I followed my heart.

I was and still am a complete beginner to the media, but I am fully aware of its power. The media can create a war and end one, depending on how much it is being reported. Orson Welles showed that on his radio programme in 1938, where it was acted that the world was under attack by aliens. It caused panic in the country, they thought it was real, but of course it was only a radio programme. So baring that in mind, wouldn't it be interesting if it had been done with creative and positive intentions, rather than spreading fear. It is clear to me that it is possible to create peace through the media and change the mind-set that peace can never be achieved. I wonder what would happen if we saw headlines that says "World Peace Declared", even if it wasn't true or not. It would make one think of the possibility that we are that close to world peace as we always depend on the media to tell us if we have peace, or not.

We love the movies, music, art and comedy. We all create things everyday. I just smile when I think of what we are all capable of creating in the future and it will be that day, when we are much happier, as it is only us who can create peace and a better future for ourselves.

- Frank Muldowney