About PAX Corps

      PAX Corps encourages interactive education, international understanding, co-operation, global discovery and communication, rom primitive to high tech society, fostering mutual respect and mutual responsibility for international living. It is not just the personal achievement or winning performance, the mastery of a language or skill, craft or technique, or any learning adventure for its own sake. That is important and certainly an invaluable portion of the reward and experience gained for the individual. Not unlike the exhilaration and gratification after an ascent of Mt. Kilamanjaro for some.

   Equally important for the PAX Corps is in the descent, to retrace the footprints, from earliest origins to the present, that lead to truth, uncovering our humanity, human story, focusing on the faces and expressions, hearts, voices and events, responsible for inspiring and uplifting the human spirit, and the human condition. PAX Corps searches and follows the guiding beacons of light and life across the luminous ocean of humanity shining brightly for hope, courage, joy, love, and peace. Charting them as a welcome lighthouse and refuge for liberty, a direction and course for learning, a safe harbor, offering guidance, protection, warmth, strength and inspiration that we may all come to know.                                                                      

       PAX Corps equally supports and magnifies any lives or actions for the recognition and elevation of all people, lives, deeds, events, individually or collectively often displaced, forgotten, lost, or overshadowed by the artificialities of the times. The goal PAX Corps strives for is to be that alliance and crossroads in someone’s life, to make a connecting link with others, in an indivisible chain reaching around the world calling for peace, with each link, in turn, each learning adventure, a mirror, a searchlight reaching across the depths and darkness, across our fears, misunderstanding and ignorance of the unknown and unfamiliar. A searchlight shining brightly reflecting back to a responsible and aware world citizen, an ambassador of good will, standing for unequivocal truth, equality, human dignity, respect of human rights, liberty, courage, preservation of life, and nature, watchful of the environment and eco systems. A spiritual being possessing a deeper understanding surpassing worldly knowledge, knowing the “golden rule”, “to love your neighbor as yourself” and the need for a more perfect love under God, for a more perfect humanity….                                                                                  

     PAX (peripatetic academia xenia) is a Corps for peace and a Charter for travel and living, independent study and learning adventures in the “peripatetic” tradition. A tradition that takes learning from the classroom into the outdoor “peripatos” and “academies”. Respectively, into the “shady walks” and “gardens and groves” of ancient Greece as the custom of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, who taught their “disciples” or students, while “walking about”, from place to place. “Peripatetic” referred to a person who walked about the shady walks learning, and is another word for a traveler on foot. 

     The PAX Corps are not followers of Socrates, the philosophy of Aristotle or Plato, or the “Peripatetic” school, or “Academies,” but adapting their pursuit of learning associated with travel on foot. For the PAX Corps (peripatetic an academia) extends the practice and exercise of walking about, from those ancient “peripatos and academies,” to “the world as a living classroom,” anywhere learning can take place, for a Corps of learners, traveling today, by foot, on safari, bicycle, canoe, kayak, raft, ship, submersible, train, bus, ATV, hot air balloon, parasail or aircraft. The PAX Corps provides exciting travel and learning opportunities. A forum for today’s youth and adults that allows personal participation in real life history, geography, political science, language, literature, music, poetry, drama, art, religion, science, and sports around the world. PAX is a walk throughout life in the spirit of peace. It is inspired from the first Indigenous trails to steps along the “shady walks” and “gardens and groves” of Ancient Greece, to the footsteps leading to “Mount of Olives” in Jerusalem. It is on this foundation that PAX inherits guided discipline and dedication to courses of learning and knowledge; knowledge from a physical and metaphysical tree of life and all its branches, extended to a personal spiritual life and truth.  It is through faith and trust guided by a Higher conscience discerning good in people and places and by personal relationship that the PAX Corps follows along a path filled with wonder and discovery. In a similar way to most green living things when properly seeded, nurtured and cared for in the right environment with the right amount of sunshine and rain, they will grow healthy roots, branches, flowers, and generally always bear good fruit… manifested in a person on the right seasoned path will most always be the discoverer and bearer of gifts, knowledge, and a healthier new life for the self, others and humanity.

            PAX was organized in 1969 when 23 Western New York high school students traveled throughout Portugal, Spain and N. Africa during 4 and a half weeks; An independent study program was created to complement formal studies in Spanish with direct cultural and language experience. The itinerary included Old World cities such as Lisbon, Madrid, Pamplona, San Sebastian, Santander, Toledo, Granada, Tangier, and Seville. The students traveling across picturesque countryside by bus and train, stayed in a variety of hotels, pensions, missionaries …from a convent to camping overnight in the Pyrenees and along the Guadalquivir River in Seville. There were cultural exchanges and dialogues in Spanish at the markets, villages, roadsides, and harbors, including fishing with local fisherman in the Bay of Biscay. The students visited historical sites such as the Royal Palace, Alhambra, Castilian cathedrals and castles, University of Salamanca, Prado Art Museum in Madrid, viewed the primitive cave paintings of Altamira, ran with the bulls in Pamplona, attended Spanish movies, theater, flamenco dancing and gypsy folk singing in Andalucía.

           The following year, PAX members organized a trip to Mexico. The group traveled in a renovated school bus along the back routes, camping aside rivers and lakes and in the mountains. At one point the bus was secured on a railroad platform and traveled 300 miles over the spectacular Tarahumara Canyons overlooking canyons more than a mile deep at various points. The railroad platform was uncoupled in a remote village near a waterfall where the Corps spent several days in a cultural exchange with the villagers, hiking, swimming and taking photographs. The Corps traveled to Mazatlán on the Pacific Coast, to Mexico City, the Pyramid of the Sun and Moon in Teotihuacan and returned through the interior of Mexico. Both programs were initiated and supervised by myself and chaperoned.

            PAX has organized adventure travel to Mexico to Portugal, Spain, and N. Africa. I also have taken personally a photographic journey to England; and a sailing experience in Scandinavia. The programs range from more independent and flexible general introductory language and culture courses on a secondary and college level to more concentrated and specialized activities initiated by a particular Corps member. It is therefore important that each upper level independent study group (college, graduate and student) include a qualified leader and a general cross section of people extended to imaginative, thoughtful and resourceful people that will motivate and complement any chosen study. This also applies to outward bound adventures, expeditions and missions.

            All PAX independent study is participatory. The Charter here serves as a model or means the activity of PAX lies in the activity of its members. It is beyond my personal means to offer any new programs other than to give what was successful for me as an example for others to follow. Only agreeing with the PAX CORPS Charter is what matters. Should at any time the organization be established with the support of many others, as a subscribed Pax Corps member you will be entitled to benefits, discounts, and eligibility to participate or lead in PAX activities as  well as access to other programs offering group discounts that are in alliance with the PAX  Corps. Access to PAX Corps  bulletin board  and web-site including, placement and info, costs, and benefits, schedules would  be available on line.  Today there are opportunities for what I have outlined.  The information here is a canopy for others who for the most part is in alliance in thought or action.

            As of this writing PAX would like learning adventures, independent study and outward-bound activities initiated in all geographic and subject areas 12 months of the year. PAX groups could be formed in areas from modern languages to divisions of art, music and history, eco journeys, to fitness, and sports.

             PAX looks to a corps membership to take the initiative. It only takes one qualified leader and several Corps members to organize an activity or independent study program, (for secondary programs an experienced and qualified educator together with a least 5 students). The costs, where to go? what to do? when? is worked out among the participants, the expectations are set for high standards, appropriateness, and originality recommended by the PAX organization, for meeting the needs and means of the Corps membership. The participants in alliance with PAX aims for independent study and activities to…coordinate closely with the course studied… are flexible to accommodate the interest of the majority of the group…the members should learn firsthand of the people and culture…put to practice the language studied. Study the original works of the great masters and local art… examine ancient civilizations and important historic and cultural points, of interest…the group should take part in recreational activities, attend plays, museums, concerts. operas, movies, lectures and allow for other interests available in a cultural community.   

      The leader will carefully select accommodations and modes of travel to assure the comfort and wellbeing of the students. Guidelines and code of ethics as developed by the Ecumical Coalition on Third World Tourism should be adhered to. The complete course should include a descriptive itinerary and recommended reading list that is flexible and relative to the nature of the subject area.  The reading list, while not required, is suggested for independent selection and study prior to or during the travel. Independent study may be extended to prominent European universities and centers of learning. PAX places no bounds for any course.  PAX is a framework and network in which the Corps may work or enlarge upon. There is no credit (unless prearranged with your respective college or school) only Xenia, generally, what you give and receive, what you sow and reap i.e. your own learning, understanding and experience.  In ancient Greece, Xenia was a gift given to guests, foreigners and strangers, generally fish or fruit.

      For some PAX members, Xenia may be  the study of Egyptology in  Cairo, or the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, a walk thru  Old  Jerusalem, following the steps of Jesus, or a visit to the ruins of Pompeii; an unglazed earthenware bowl from a contemporary Mexican village in Oaxaca, Mexico, or turquoise jewelry found in a southwest Navajo Indian village; an open air concert under the stars in the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, or a walk in the Acropolis in Athens; the Louvre Art Museum in Paris or the Elizabethan stage in Stratford; white water rafting , kayaking in Alaska, or travel  by riverboat down the Amazon  in South America.   

          While PAX Corps cannot expect everyone to experience the benefits of travel and cultural exchange, we can expect anyone who has the desire will have an opportunity for learning and travel in the PAX Corps tradition. PAX wherever possible or those in alliance should offers examples of travel adventures that are challenging and affordable.

           We would like to keep them realistic at the same time unlimited in possibility. Individual memberships, contributions, donations, and sponsorship support the PAX Corps. Any support could have a consequence that may open a door or change someone’s life and provide opportunity   for assistance and hope for a new direction that can make a difference…     

         If you have experienced the benefits of travel and cultural exchange you can help us build a bridge of learning adventures around the world that will lead us to new worlds and to one another. Support the Corps, designate an area for any particular cause or project and we encourage you to be an active participant or advisor. 

       You could provide a homestay, itinerary for a selected member, study group, or mission. In an indivisible chain of life, and in peace every link is as important as the next, and grows stronger with each additional link.  It starts taking one step, reaching out, connecting one link with another. Wherever a Pax course or adventure  may take us, our goal is to be united in spirit, to continue to cross borders and  barriers, denominations, races, colors political systems, divisions of rank, wealth, and class, as one family, making discoveries, sharing our experiences into opportunities, that create, not only for ourselves, but benefiting others towards a global world  peace and understanding, making a better world  for all to live, especially our children.

       PAX Corps looks for help and alliances on all levels across continents. The Corps need volunteers, advisors, guides, leaders, organizers, members, and participation. Pax encourages members to use your abilities and talents and experiences that are special to you. The activity of PAX Corps is the activity of its Corps members. A “esprit d’ corps” shared around the world for light, liberty, life, and learning in peace. The PAX Corps needs you! Whoever you are? There are youth and adults waiting for opportunities to learn and there are those who have much to teach, to offer, and to share. PAX wants to make those links today. If you have a learning adventure or proposal that is “grassroots”, “hands on”, “esprit d corps”, PAX CORPS WELCOMES YOU TO LEAD! Send PAX your itinerary, ideas and cost so we may offer your program via the net to our global Corps and alliances around the world.

        For the present it is beyond my resources or scope to do any more than share this once successful experience as a learning too, an opportunity for the readers and others to share and build upon. It is an alternative approach for learning and crossing cultures I consider proven and invaluable and will change the way people think about themselves and others. I have learned one person can make a difference. The core of Pax always embraces life and hope through educational opportunities, the exchange and sharing of diversified learning experiences, serving the cause for Peace, for Love, for Freedom and for strengthening the Faith and Trust within all People…