I participated in a 30 minute panel discussion with an additional 10 minutes of Q&A at the Tagore Society of Houston's 2017 Annual Tagore Talk. The theme of the panel was to discuss "Exploring Peace- Beyond Barriers." We debated over the basics of how peace gets defined within ourselves at the human level and then how harmony and peace can exist in a diverse post-globalized world that we live in. We further discussed the following prompts:

• The relationship between peace within the individual and peaceful societies. How does a Tagorean belief in the transcendental shape cultures of peace?

• The relationship between peace and truth. Tagore believed in speaking the truth always - even in circumstances where doing so could be viewed as confrontational, but felt that no true peace could exist without truth and justice.

• Education as the pathway to peace.

• Is America still the place from which the solutions to global strife and conflict can emanate? Tagore, in his lifetime, believed strongly that America was that place.