I got into a discussion at work with a colleague who seems to be so effective at taking care of other people but won’t want to dare marriage; not to even mention child rearing. I was horrified by how life brings some fortunes and some ills. Where some are seeking and missing; some are finding, meeting yet losing nonchalantly. Where some are deliberate, some are negligent. We are born; we are gifts but some are dead points for generations coming after us. Where some are eager to leave a legacy; some would never care to give back the privilege they received. I got talking with another colleague whose fiancé recently lost a father. The late old man left an instruction for his son to gather his remains in form of ashes gotten from crematorium; to take it all the way to the city where he was originally born. The late man wanted to re-connect with his source. He thought by that he would be returning as ashes to the earth where he came from in the same state and city. His son had to travel long distance just to sprinkle his late father in form of ashes unto the city where he was born. While he would do that in honor of him; most would rather die and be buried wherever they stray towards in the course of their life’s pilgrimage. The son journeyed by road for hours to sprinkle ashes! I thought to myself. What a life. A man was dead and gone but his words would never die with him? Imagine the power of words, instruction, talking about the weight of a man’s desire living after death. It reminded me of a patriarch called Joseph when he was about to die in Egypt. He commanded the children of Israel saying: “Now I’m about to die, but God would surely visit you, and take you out of this land to the land He has promised for our ancestors; and when the time has come for that exodus ensure you take my bones with you out of this land of Egypt into the promised land where God has promised to the children of Israel.” By implication he wanted to see the place flowing with milk and honey even though in death. He too wanted to get there. It may be in death or living. He wanted to touch the Promised Land also! Talking about the power of a place?
Beauty of dying with honor and virtue such that the world we leave behind would not care going extraordinary miles for us. How having honor even in death such that our words carry weight such that the worlds we’ve exit would reverberate after us. It takes loyalty, commitment, courage and more. The point I am making is more than emphasizing values and virtues. My emphasis is on living a life of loyalty, impact and courage such that people are bound to remain loyal to you even in death. Two of my favorite movies entitled Brave heart and The Gladiator captured that. Heroism, character displayed. Loyalty foiled and restored. Frail people became warriors and won. Sold conscience restored and recover. Trust rebuilt. You’d ask how people could launch a come back after suffering self-defeats, regrets, pains and the consequences of (unpatriotic) actions and corruptions. Enough of my movie review!
We live in various multiple forms. Our life revolves around worlds such as the world of our individual needs, concerns, desires, we think about what we love, what we want, our expectations and goals. We long to achieve our dreams and aspirations. We get overwhelmed with volumes of thoughts and fears concerning our limitations. Just as we flip pages in studies, our minds rotate around our desires and destinations. What intrigued me was how in that process, people enter, exit and re-enter into their own worlds and could get lost even when you are discussing with them about something entirely different. The effects of these multiplicities of worlds are plethora. It’s like moving around in one single room with different items. And as we move from a single room to the sitting room; we face different items and articles. We interact with different items in bedroom, which are different from the ones we use while moving in and out of our kitchen. The boardrooms, classrooms, offices, laboratory are filled with different kinds of people like the room is filled with all kinds of articles. As we enter and exit these world of things and people. We leave things behind. We miss people, we lose and gain friends. Memories are the only things we have that cannot be taken away from us. They're what we hold on to, long after we've faced the good times that seems fleeting. We keep pictures, videos of places, people and events. They are reminders of worlds where we’ve lived in. where we’ve been at. Some are reminders of our folly, agony, confusion, complexity, commonality while some are of happy hours, seasons. As we move around and journey all over; the effects of those worlds are indelibly etched on our hearts as pasts.
We remain united and divided in souls. We live from hearts but act in styles. We experience different things and yet the same things. Some aspire to be better, to become successful, rich, significant and great. Some doesn’t even care. Life has no meaning and riches are for others but not them. I have come across folks like that who told me they are not interested in getting rich. Yet they want to be happy. Happiness is relative just as riches could be weighed in terms of expectations and the size of people’s dreams, goals and aspirations. We are sometimes challenged by the same things; by the same mystery. We all face the same mystery called death. Some are either running from poverty towards riches while others are either running away from poverty while inside riches. We are faced by the same weather and climate. Cold and hot, depending on where you live, how you feel, how you see what you feel and see. We're like united spirit associated into oneness of differences and uniqueness. We are a combination of more than one soul, merged into one divided souls. We are divided by our interests, race, culture, color, environment and destiny. Much more we are divided by our destinies and destinations.
We go as travellers towards our destinations leaving worlds of good and bad behind as we step into evil and good. I find frailties even in me as I observed in the most heroic of us all. I’ve come to observe sanctity, sanity, insanity, erotic, error and heroic. All combined in one and often found in each one of us.
Back to where I started from… In the course of my life journey, I’ve been privileged to meet with great people. I have sat with royalties. I have sat with reputable leaders. I’ve met with government officials in the corridors of their offices; I’ve been to the house of influential people. And I’ve found that the common threads that weave through all were: they’re pressured…to perform, to keep us impressed, to remain in power. Hence, they have fears like you and I. They worry about their public relations. They worry about their future. Their lives outlined similitude in the same inevitable life challenges as compared with ordinary people. Come to think of it, we face the same death together, they may die well, and they may not. We all die anyway. They have fears, hopes and concerns. They want to remain significant just as you and I want the same. We flow like streams towards the same sea in all our uniqueness.
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