The wind has a special touch that it brings in its wake, sometimes laughter and at other times great displeasure; and life, no matter how you define it, is as unique as the colors it pours on our world. It holds a cloud full of uncertainties which a lot of time you can’t help but wait to see the tune it wants to play and try to see if you can match its rhythm.
– Havard Lawrence.
I once was told that just as you had no say in the family you were born into, that’s how you will live to see others join you in that same family. If God gives us an opportunity to decide the family, race, ethnic nationality and country we would want to be born into, I bet you we would still be a confused bunch because we would want all the best that life has to offer bottled in one mould yet not recognize it when given to us.
I asked myself a question one day when my world felt so dark and cold irrespective of the global warming radiation around me, if I should blame God for some pain I feel, or be mad at children born into enormous fortunes. It got me thinking after listening to a documentary on infant mortality and the pains of countless mothers who watch their children die in their hands as a result of one or a combination of poor family planning, poor Medicare, lack of proper enlightenment and negligence of our governments.
I wonder why some people have too much of life’s bounties, yet they forget the golden rule of giving. In this case not out of compulsion, but of the abundance they have. They go about saying that the responsibility of saving the world is not theirs so why bother. Who are we to blame when we watched the street kid turn into the vermin who now rule our world with pain? We try to isolate ourselves from the realities of life when the rich build safe havens for themselves and their kids, while you find a different world a short distance from their empires where people live in places not fit for swines.
I make no excuse for the lazy among us, not for those who choose to live a life of crime but for those who beg to be given an opportunity to be able to hold their heads up and walk as humans. I cry for help for little children who have dreams of witty inventions, whom we may never know if they are allowed to die of pneumonia they contacted sleeping out in the open. If you ask me why I don’t go fighting the parents of the children out in the street, I will answer by asking you why go in
search of the missing black goat in the thick of the night. Let’s start now.
I pray we wake up to the realization of the truth that we need each other to survive, and to discard the erroneous belief that it is not our duty to change the world. When we decide to give water, food, and clothes to the naked and shelter to the homeless and make it our duty to try to leave smiles on their faces erasing their pain, we would be fulfilling the fundamental law of loving our neighbors the way we love ourselves. Against all odds, we should never run away from taking the bull by the horn. We should take time out and build our families, our communities and nations. Let it be known that an excuse you give to avoid responsibility can never make you fulfilled in life.
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I read your article and it has moved me beyond words! We all suffer from injustices meted out to us by our fellow human beings. It is test of our endurance and I hope that all of us who are in this situation do not fail in this test.
– Savaira Kawish 12/4/09
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