Here for a Reason...
There is a popular video circulating
in the social media of older people.
It is a Country and Western song by Alan Jackson entitled “The Older I Get” and it has a powerful message for those of us who have reached a point when you maybe asking yourself questions about the whole purpose and meaning of life.
In the song, the writer is asking himself some hard questions about his life and for which no one can give him suitable answers. You can listen to the song on YouTube under: www.theolderiget.com.
When I started composing this piece I was clearly a disturbed person. I had even been to see a mental counsellor to help me understand and assure me that I was NOT mad.
After three serious sessions, he told me:
“My friend, if you think you are mad then you do not know anything about madness. No one who is mad knows that he is mad”.
“Strange”, I told him. “That is exactly what my good friend Dr Muya told me 20 years ago. He told me that if you suspect that you are mad and you go to see a doctor, then you are ok. The mad ones are brought to me in chains”.
Which reminded me of a story I once heard about the day the late President Kenyatta visited Mathare mental hospital in Nairobi. As he was walking about with his entourage, he saw this fellow who was sitting by himself and looking at him curiously.
So he asked him in Kiswahili: “Kijana, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because”, he answered him. “I have seen all the cars that brought you here and all those people with you. Me, I was brought here by my two brothers on foot. I have been here for nearly five years”.
“So?”, Mzee asked him.
“I feel sorry for you. You will never leave this place”.
In a way he was right but for different reason. Mzee died 42 years ago in 1978 and his son recently(2013) replaced him in state house already 7 years ago. Still in that same lunatic asylum by whatever name you call it.
The Current Context
Life has a way of kicking you in the butt when you least expect it. Mzee helped to kicked out the Brits out of Kenya 57 years ago. He thought that, in the process, he was getting himself a golden spoon to wealth, peace and prosperity. Wealth and prosperity he got; I do not know about peace.
As I write this, his son Uhuru is having to do with an enemy worse than the Brits: a crazy little creature called the coronavirus, liberally translated to a “vile ceature with a crown on its head”. Unlike the vile British colonizers, he cannot even organize a decent Mau Mau rebellion against it. Neither can his many reliable friends including the very British colonizers who are into it even deeper than him.
Which reminds me of a deep Gikuyu proverb: “Wa thi ino urihagirio o thi ino” - The sins you commit in this world are paid for right here in the same world. A double edged proverb.
Maybe, together, they will find a solution. As for me, I am just looking at the sun and the moon asking them for an answer.
Still totally crazy. I think.
On a serious note, the timing for this virus could not have been more inopportune. It was announced soon after Christmas and that it originated from a Chinese city many of us had never heard of: Wuhan. Even my reliable Google seems to be in same spot: Each time I type “Wuhan” while in spell-check, it makes it “Wigan”, wherever that is.
Much worse was to follow: It hit its peak during the period known as Easter to Christians and, coincidentally, the month of Ramadhan for Muslims. I do not know enough about Buddhism but I doubt if it falls into that category.
Why Now?
The practical reality of this matter is that happening as it is at this time is putting many religions under extreme pressure. Especially from the younger members of the human race who are not afraid to ask hard questions about the existence of God. I doubt if any of our conventional preachers of religion will be able to provide satisfactory answers.
And therein lies the greatest problem for mankind: If you cannot fall back to good old reliable religion, what other choices do you have? I do not dare to venture further except to give a coward’s answer: It must be happening for a reason.
Whatever that reason is. My personal conclusion is this: Man, the main creature inhabiting and controlling planet earth has become so selfish that he thinks he is, in fact, the owner and controller of the earth and, by extension, the universe. We have, as a species, been living on a binge. Too much fun, not caring about our fellow man and other species - except to exploit them - and even disregarding the environment as if it does not exist.
And therein lies the answer like I said earlier. Like my friend Amina at CRA taught me a few years ago: “Malipo ni hapa hapa duniani. Ahera ni hesabu.” (The sins you commit while you are in this world will be paid for right here on earth. Heaven, if you ever get there will be just for giving an account of your life while on earth).
In short, living like you will be here for ever, is totally unacceptable. And, hear this: When good old nature hits back, it does so with a viciousness that appears cruel and irresponsible. In case you do not believe me, just do an anlysis of the age of the people it is affecting most with the coronavirus: those over 60 years of age. Maybe it is time to apportion blame to that age group.
Payback time. And, sadly for me, I happen to be one of them.
JH Kimura,
Easter, 2020.