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Often times, when I sit quietly and ponder on this thing called human existence, I feel pride in knowing that I am part of humanity at this point in history. But my pride never lasts for very long because the beauty of humanity is quickly challenged by the continued existence hunger, war, starvation, natural disasters, racism, hatred, greed and fear.
I ask my self sometimes how can so much evil exist along side such beauty as love, sacrifice, children, joy and laughter? Is there anything I can do about the evils of humanity as an individual? Maybe we can be more effective as a group of individuals?
The world is indeed very big but yet very small, ask people who travel by land and they will tell you, I once travelled for four days by road non stop within only five countries in West Africa, it was a very long journey to me but when I try to imagine the distance between South Africa and China. It is almost impossible for my imagination to phantom the sheer size of our world in physical terms.
But the world is also very small, business decisions taken inside a room in New York affects how much my mother pays for detergent in Benin City.
So if the world is very big, and it has so much evil, what might be my role is fighting all these evil? Can I even attempt it? Maybe I am too small, I think I will join a group, but even a group of people like me may not be enough to make an impact in today's world.
Okay, let us try and make life better in our local environment. Why not? At least this is a smaller area so for sure we can make a greater impact. So I am motivated once more, we begin to identify what needs to be addressed, we move on to what strengths we posses and alas! We are ready to make a difference!
We start making a difference in our community.
One day, somebody says, 'it has been a while since we started, hope we will finish all this one day'
Then I start thinking again, what did she mean by saying ‘all this’?
I do a quick review of our work, I realise that a lot has changed over time, with everyday comes new challenges, news from abroad about other evils in other societies.
I am de-motivated again, ‘maybe’ I am thinking to myself, 'if I just live my life ordinarily, wake up in the morning, go to school/work, eat the meals I need to eat to stay alive, meet with family and friends... just do normal ordinary things and not bother about the extra ordinary things like making somebody else happy, then I will have nothing to worry about when I go to sleep at night.'
My dear friend, why don't we all just do this, wake up everyday, do only ordinary things and then just go to sleep at night. We may not very happy people, but for sure will not be sad people. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, it is when we go to sleep that the evils of this world really haunts us. During our time of wakefulness, we can control our thoughts and emotions if we try, but when we sleep, our subconscious takes over, we start experiencing the sum of all our fears,
A sum of all the fears denied and ignored during the day. Nightmares explained.
But I will not live an ordinary life; I will try to do extra ordinary things like be a mentor to people who have not been exposed to as much opportunities as me. I will try my best as long as I am alive to improve the quality of life of at least another person. I don't care if this task takes a long time or maybe a lifetime, for me it does not matter. To know that I cannot change everything evil in this world may de-motivate me sometimes but it is okay, I will compensate with the joy I derive from doing some good work for other people.
Miscommunication, hatred, mistrust, fear and greed are some of the things that are bringing tears and sorrows to humanity. Today, governments are justifying why we must fight to protect what we have.
‘ We must protect our freedom from those who want to take it from us; we must be ready to fight this war’. Not a bad idea really, after all the word 'free' sounds good, whatever it might mean to you and me.
But a question pops up in my head, when I fall asleep, will the talk of war or even fighting a war take away the nightmares, which will certainly disturb me at night?
No.
I will not live an ordinary life; I will try to make a difference. I will enjoy doing this. I feel motivated. Bad news will de-motivate me but it is okay, I can handle that. By trying to make a positive difference, I am on the part towards world peace, love, equality (and all those other nice words). By doing this I am not so scared by the nightmares. One day, things will be different for sure; there will be no more nightmares.
To be really free as a society and as an individual means to exterminate all those things, which threaten the continued existence of our common humanity. Things like Hatred, fear, greed, hunger, etc. It does not mean pushing them outside our borders or keeping them at bay.
I think President Gnassingbe Eyadema said it perfectly-'The power of guns, cannot be used to find a solution.……you may succeed to win the war today with the benefit and advantage of your superior fire-power, but you will still have to sit down at the negotiation table with your adversaries in order to win the Peace'
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Ejiro
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