Labyrinth of Peace

Brandon has a nice network of walking / bicycling paths that we try to use every day. From behind our house we can walk down along the river in just a few minutes. Great for that daily exercise regime.

Meg and I like to take a circular bicycles route sometimes and we did that this weekend. The route is interrupted by the construction of the new bridges over the Assiniboine River, but the consolation there is that the new bridges will have better bicycling and walking facilities than the current bridge does now.

This time, we looped around by the "Labyrinth of Peace." This is an area developed to show that all religions are different paths to one God, and that all lead to peace. A descriptive plaque explains the concept and 10 concrete posts show the different religions. A colorful picture on top of each post shows each religion. In the centre is a representation in limestone of Manitoba with a sheaf of wheat. The centre illustrates that Brandon, Manitoba is a place where different religions co-exist in peace.

The Labyrinth is only a few years old, but unfortunately, almost all of the religious pictures are gone, whether removed by vandalism or the weather. The bare posts which remain are actually quite ugly.

Meg and I remarked to each other that the Labyrinth now illustrates perhaps a greater truth: that religions - while appearing bright and shiny in theory - are often unworkable in practice.