This must date from Christmas ’95.
 
Dear John,
            Your Mother and I asked you to write a list of preferred Christmas presents, and reluctantly, not being a greedy child, you did. On reading it, we ploughed through all the bewildering information technology, all the video and computer-related wizardry, with the leaven of hygiene aids- the deodorant and the talc- and then we found the bombshell, the last brief item- World Peace.
     With help from a certain banking organisation we might be able to manage one or two of the electronic wonders (plus deodorant and talc) but the wonder of world peace, we can’t deliver. Our generation of parents and politicians have tried- are still trying; we have our little successes and our big failures. I would like to think that we have done a little better than preceding generations, but what gives me comfort and hope is the thought that your generation may, and I’m sure will get even closer.
     Don’t ask for World Peace, John. Rather we should ask you. Don’t be dismayed. We don’t expect you to deliver either, but if you and your generation can throw off the old genetic obsession with greed and power, if you can go on in your present trend of sharing your pleasures and your achievements, then your successes will be greater than ours. Granted you will have your failures, but they will not be quite so great, and you will learn by them, and maybe your children, or theirs, or some succeeding generation will finally make the old dream work. They will finally make the dream a reality, and the reality will be this: that the world is good enough and big enough to share with all men, no matter what they call their God, or how they look, or what customs they keep, and that with proper management the world can provide food and shelter for everyone- man and beast.
     Then there may well be a Christmas Eve, or a Passover, Ramadan or Holi, when we can say “Tomorrow we will have World Peace”
     Merry Christmas, John.