Time’s changing and something’s going on!
Kalu Onwuka Oct. 4th, 2015
I hope that you enjoyed last week’s post where I shared my disappointment with our shortsightedness as parents in not preparing our children well and setting the table right for a great future for them. I pointed out that we have failed to a great degree in modelling for our children how to be good citizens and custodians of the earth. Mind you I am not talking about raising them to keep perpetuating the same mistakes borne of lustful desires and hasty decisions that have been our way of life but equipping them with the tools to make the world a better and more livable place. I noted plaintively that we are leaving a gigantic mess behind by whatever means or indicator we choose to apply and should be very much concerned. I expressed due alarm about this sorry state of affairs and urged that we begin to take corrective action across the board if our children are to have any chance of inheriting a livable future.
Well on to this week’s post. I am deeply convinced that something out of the ordinary is definitely going on across the world. It is no longer a case of the usual with mankind. Time’s changing and something is really going on for sure. There is a palpable sense of urgency governing every earthly endeavor much like the overtime period in a football or basketball game where every minute or possession counts immensely. Far be it from me to trivialize life by comparing it to a game but there is an underlying sense that we are very near the tipping point and that whatever needs to be done has to be done now or never. There seems to be an unseen external entity hovering over humanity that is triggering a sense of foreboding or trepidation in many hearts. But yet in a roundabout way that same unseen presence has turned on a very bright spotlight on all of us so that our true colors can be seen and true worth assayed. Whether we like it or not there is some measure of divine intervention being injected into the human milieu across the board in all areas of life today. This injection is serving to stir up the collective soul or soup of humanity in order to skim off some for the greater purpose of ‘redressing’ the earth.
That we have grossly mismanaged the earth is an understatement. Excuse the play on words but the truth is that we have run the earth into the ground. I dare say that like the drunk who has denied his alcoholism for a long time, mankind is slowly but surely waking up to the fact that the earth has suffered irreparable damage. There is unanimous agreement that something cataclysmic is about to be unleashed. Belatedly mankind is coming to grips with the fact that it lost its way along the road of materialism a while back. There is enough blame to go around for we have all taken ample bites out of the alluring fruit that defines materialism. This fruit which seems good in the beginning but invariably turns out to be evil in the end is the bane of humanity. It is sad that mankind today, much as those who have gone before did, continues to gorge on that fruit which looks good to the eye but spawns evil. It is this sad inability to learn from the mistakes of the past that has brought mankind to his knees and eve of demise.
Being that we are unable to learn from our past mistakes, most of mankind’s undertakings have led him to this dead end where he is engulfed in problems without answers. Our obsession with the materialistic has steadily fractured humanity’s collective soul, created great schisms within the human family over the years, and triggered a degradation that has relentlessly eaten away at all things. It is on this account that mankind now finds to his chagrin that he can only do but little to protect himself from the imminent catastrophe that is staring him down. He finds himself defenseless from the onslaught of disasters both natural and others that he has unwittingly engendered. Each day reveals to him the increasing shortcomings and vulnerabilities of his much vaunted technology.
As things shakily stand at present, mankind is helpless to hold back the overwhelming flood that is besieging him borne of the presumptive and hard-charging lifestyle that he has adopted. For too long man has lived by the false notion that life on earth is a dash to gather material possessions and that victory belongs to him that gathers the most. His dash to gather earthly riches has led into the heart of human darkness where the golden rule is derided. And so today’s world has become a dog eat dog environment where the strong prey on the weak and the knowledgeable on the gullible. Outside appearance now counts far more than inner worth. Image has become everything, content of a man taken for little with Truth relegated to the background in human endeavors. Whereas Truth should have been put on a candle stick as the guiding light on earth, it has been hidden away in the basement of life and out of sight where it does no one any good. But where there is light life abounds and in its absence death is empowered. And so we all tether on the precipice with the sword of Damocles hanging over our collective head with death facing us if we continue on our present path.
Many are hell-bent on continuing with the present tack for they aspire to know no better but some have chosen to turn back which has led to a fracturing and separation of sorts among humanity. In effect a spiritual separation is going on as a signifier that the present chapter of humanity’s journey has just about concluded and that a new one has already begun. It is for this reason that the world has become like a raging sea frothing with seemingly unceasing and monstrous waves being cast about everywhere. As the gulf of separation has steadily increased so also have associated upheavals followed suit. Even though these upheavals are forcing up repercussive waves in humanity’s consciousness that is leaving many dazed and confused yet it is the means by which the better will be spawned. The upheavals that we are witnessing today across the world can be likened very much to the very painful yet necessary birth pangs of something new that has hitherto been unknown. Emerging from fractured humanity will be a core of souls untouched and unfazed by today’s upheavals who have kept good faith with the Divine. Such are the ones who have been able to transcend the pettiness and lowliness of today’s world. Such constitute the cream of humanity deemed worthy to be afforded the wherewithal and tools to redress the earth in divine order. And so, as humanity staggers on wobbly legs into this birth of something new the truthful, humble, and noble among us have been divinely ordained to be midwives of this new creation. Such among us no matter faith, creed, ethnicity or walk of life have been chosen to lead the rest into the new by modeling the way. They have been chosen to show us that to live for all is the key to the salvation of the whole but to live for self leads to the damnation of the lot.
Means to measure humanity’s bloom or blight
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 28th, 2015
In an earlier article posted in March, while expressing my current distaste for boxing as a sport of choice I brought up the issue of women fighting in cages and cautioned mothers everywhere to watch out for their children as promoters were coming after them next. Of course I meant it as a joke at the time but little did I know that it will turn out to be prophetic. I recently read about a kindergarten in Philadelphia or somewhere thereabouts where four-year olds were being fitted with gloves to engage in boxing bouts. I could not believe what I was reading except that the whole thing was recorded in video by the perpetrators or shall we say promoters to be marketed later perhaps. I still don’t know what to make of it all but I can imagine the horror that greeted the parents as they became apprised of the pugilistic apprenticeship into which they had unknowingly enrolled their kids. Imagine the horror of it all as parents learned that their children were being schooled in the martial arts instead of reading and arithmetic.
No one should be mistaken or fail to understand that there is a ferocious battle going for the minds of our children. It is within the context of this struggle which revolves around the welfare of the children that humanity’s bloom or blight will be determined. It is an open secret, except for the spiritually blind, that our children are drowning in a sea of worldliness as parents everywhere seem to be putting financial well-being first and foremost in their lives to the detriment of the welfare of the young. No longer are parents willing to make sacrifices or go without so that their children can have the emotional stability needed to sustain them through the challenges invariably encountered through life. Parents are now given to eagerly dump off the children to school each day as early as possible to come back for them as late as they can all in the name of career building and advancement. They are all too willing to relegate the duty of raising their children to others for token fees. The children on the other hand understand all this more than parents think that they do and are filled from head-to-toe with resentment.
Having been denied the wholesome upbringing that every child deserves many have grown up into adulthood with an aversion for children. Children it seems have now been deemed as a drag on life by the young and upwardly mobile class. They shrink from the idea of having kids as if it is a curse instead of the blessing that it truly is. They like to roam the globe and bring back photos to show where they have been as a bragging right. They also like to whine and eagerly jump at every chance to second guess their parents. It seems to me that they sincerely believe that they have been put here to raise their parents instead of the other way around as nature dictates. The truth is that raising children demands sacrifices which the yuppie class seems to be hesitant to make. It is quite worrisome as shrinking from embracing this natural role does not bode well for humanity’s future. What could be more malleable subjects for young adults than to apply and prove their parenting skills on young ones eager to please them? And come to think of it, what better way for mankind to declare that he too was here on earth than to have offspring fitly molded to take his place after he is gone. Even animals seem to understand that and work very hard to achieve it to the point of risking death.
I can only shake my head in disbelief as I read about the European nations arguing about whether to document the helpless at their doorsteps as migrants or refugees. There they are with their populations aging and stagnating because having children has become an anathema to the ears of their young adults. Who wants to be engrossed with the hum-drum of diaper washing when there are a million fun things out there to be enjoyed their young adults might as well be saying out loud? Those countries need the influx of the young, able and willing much as the Sahara needs rain but there they are quibbling about migrants and refugees as the right descriptor. It could be funny if you think about it except that this is an issue about life and death that leaves nothing to laugh at. I mean it could be funny in the sense that I don’t think that any human being seeking for better sees self as a migrant or walk-about and should never be classified as such.
I dare say that anyone that is in that predicament sees self as a refugee from hardships regards of whatever bureaucratic descriptor we come up with. It takes great courage to leave home and heath, walk into a foreign land with strange ways where the people clearly wear their disgust for you on their faces. The migration of Syrian refugees is indeed a noble undertaking for it is journey of hope aimed at securing a future for the young. I dare say that it is taking place not only for the obvious reason of need but so we can all observe that no sacrifice is too great to be made to secure the future of our offspring as we seem to be forgetting. Where the future of the children is involved, not the seas, forests, distance, cold, heat, hunger, deprivation, humiliation should deter us is the lesson to be learned from what is unfolding before our very eyes.
What could be more contrasting as well as tell the tales of two cities eloquently or different takes on life with regards to children as the iconic images of two infants washing up on different beaches on opposite sides of the world? One was the young boy that washed up on a Turkish beach that broke our hearts to smithereens and the other was of the little girl found on a Boston beach that horrified us to death. While one drowned with his parents in a brave attempt and bold reach for better, the other was battered to death and stuffed in a trash bag for being too much trouble. One tells the tale of the have-nots from the less privileged areas of the world willing to endure hardships, suffer humiliation, risk their lives to traverse stormy seas in order to offer their children a better chance at life. While the other is of those in privileged countries prone to being provoked to get rid of their babies when they seem to crimp their lifestyle or become a drag on their lives. What a sad chapter in mankind’s earthly journey that those who seem to have little materially are willing to make enormous sacrifices on behalf of their children that those who have much are not able to?
Have you reconciled claims with reality yet?
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 23rd, 2015
In one of my recent posts I made the observation that we are all now being called out to reveal our true colors. Whether we like it or not, we are all being led to show our true colors by a force that is beyond mankind’s ability to resist. Whether we like it or not, we are all beginning to show our true colors in the fact that we are being conveyed along two contending streams namely that of the divine against that of the world. There really is no place to hide anymore as a dividing line has been drawn with no middle ground to be used as camouflage as many have done in the past. The rich folks are calling out each other for being greedy and thoughtless. The poor folks are calling out each other for lacking the courage to challenge the status quo and cease from fighting over the crumbs left over by the rich or things will never change. The religious leaders are calling out each other to cease from their hypocritical pandering to the rich and prove their worth as men of faith. In this same revealing light, those who claim to be civilized and superior are being called out as impostors who care little for the less privileged.
There is something unmistakably going on within the fabric of humanity. It seems that a light has been turned on in our minds so that we are now beginning to see clearly and have all suddenly begun to see the true nature of things. It seems as if the haze of the supersize-all- things mindset that hid our short-comings for so long is now wearing off. And so we find ourselves collectively awakening from a deep slumber to suddenly realize that things have really gotten out of hand to where urgent corrections need to be made across the board. It seems as if an additional thread has been divinely woven into the fabric of humanity or something within the human DNA has been suddenly turned. It is all for real this time folks and there is no going back. Either one gets with the program or he becomes a road kill within this stream of complexity consciousness that is slowing coursing its way through the human landscape. Fight it and you will sink to the bottom or ride it and you will float along like a butterfly.
Well remember that whole hoopla about December 2012 and the demise of this age, it just might turn out to be true after all. It should be noted that it takes three years for the roots of change whether good or bad to begin to take root within the fabric of humanity. The seed of something truly grand was divinely planted within humanity three years ago and seems to be taking root. But it will take seven or four more years to come for it to be truly established so it can become manifested before all eyes. Yet its apex will not be reached or full blossom realized until seventeen or fourteen more years later when the wind of change will have completed its mission of instituting the new order. For too long, mankind’s wants as dictated by his flesh have precipitated his actions but in the new order his spiritual needs will become paramount.
The spirit within each man will bear witness from within much like a radio transmitter so that each man can receive it and no one can deceive the other. Put simply, for the first in our human journey each person will get the other clearly either for good or bad without any misunderstandings. It will be as if each of us will be announcing ourselves and signaling our intentions before we get there with our thoughts and what is hidden in our minds. There will be little exchange of words but much communication going on in spirit as we would then learned for our yes to mean yes and our no to mean just that. It will be a time where we will no longer know any man in accordance with the flesh but with the spirit within and I dare say that we are well on our way there. Come to think of it, it is only a natural progression or evolutionary step given how the Information/Internet age has completely changed us within. We have deposited or invested our collective consciousness within the deep vaults of the Internet and it is morphing into the ultimate gate-keeper. That which of each of us has deposited into the Internet is maturing to be reflected back into our every-day consciousness. That which each one has uploaded into the cloud will be the rain that falls down for him to receive.
The truth is that with the Information/Internet age as a back-drop, we have all just gone through defining, branding and positioning ourselves in ways aimed to bring us the most attention or social currency. But just as we have pumped up self to our hearts’ content, comes the next phase or the post-Internet age demanding of each of us to walk the walk or else take a hike. This phase of the human awakening demands that we reconcile that which we have claimed in words with that which we truly are and actually do. One might ascribe it to a post-Internet reality where words have become superfluous to count for little. But rather action more than ever is now defining everyone in ways that words never can. And so it is our action rather than words that will be speaking for us to reveal who we truly are. It is by action that the fruits of the harvest will be displayed to help identify each tree for its true nature rather than by its look.
Humanity has embarked on the phase of the journey where the tire gets to meet the road so to say. Even within the Christian fold, there is a new reality or a post-Christ consciousness where it is no longer just about mastering scriptural verses but living in the spirit of the verses that we love to quote. I use Christianity as a reference point not because those who profess it are better or worse than those of other faith but only to make the point that humanity has reached a certain point beyond which something new and pure now beckons us all. We have entered the season where we have to reconcile what we know the scriptures to be telling us to do with what we are actually doing with and in our lives. We are all being called to reconcile the divine ethos that pulses within our hearts with the goings of our feet and the doings of our hands. Humanity everywhere regardless of faith or creed is experiencing this irresistible urge to reconcile that which is seen without with that which resides within. Every one that embraces this urge to reconcile claims with reality will be entrained in the divine stream but sadly many are still dazed and suffering from the lingering malaise induced by the Internet to notice that a new movement has begun.
Finding escape if only for a brief moment
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 19, 2015
I hope that you enjoyed last week’s blog where I bemoaned the fact that we have become eager to trade off wholesome living for some measure of short-lived fun much like that extra piece of pie that assuages the emotional desires of the obese but impacts his health negatively. I also pointed out how some argue that trade-offs are inevitable in life and often have to be made from time to time as part of that necessary bargain needed to sustain humanity as well as make the earthly journey fun. I commented that the talk about trade-offs belong with the tired arguments advanced by the agents of the masterminds of this world who revel in darkness and see the rest of us as puppets to be pulled by the strings any way they fancy. I concluded with the observation that the narrative of our earthly journey has become about the well-heeled using their money to try to present wrong as right, the crooked as straight, the untenable as worthwhile and the unsustainable as manageable.
Well then on to this week’s post. The recent case of mistaken identity where an innocent man was tackled and held face down on the side-walks of Manhattan brought back certain memories about a recent trip that we made there. First of all let me take a little time to express my sympathy to the victim of that take-down James Blake. I am not about to trivialize the incident or deign to dismiss the needed lessons that both law-enforcement and citizenry need to learn from that unfortunate incident. But the truth is that my first reaction as I first saw it on TV was to shudder on account of the filth in which the police held down his face. I mean anyone who has ever walked on the sidewalks of Manhattan around Times Square where the whole incident took place would shudder as well. The surface of the side-walks there is encrusted with nothing but pock marks of chewing-gum long discarded and ground down by the human horde that roams the side-walks night and day as well as the assorted feces of vermin of all kinds and sizes.
Now thinking about the pock marks that besmirch the sidewalks of Manhattan got my creative itch aroused if only for a brief moment. First the thought floated through my mind that it will be a great idea to come up with a way of really getting rid of them so that the side-walks can cease from assaulting the eyes so much. Following on the heels of that was the thought about how unbecoming it is that chewing-gum graffiti as some like to call it has come to define every public space and buildings where we tread. And right after that thought followed the conclusion that we have become so accustomed and accepted chewing-gum graffiti as proof of living that it doesn’t really matter anymore. In fact it has come to matter so little with us that we shudder when we read about the public floggings in places like Singapore for gum-chewing and adopt that petulant superiority stance where we cannot help but conclude that they must be barbaric over there to punish people for such a harmless past-time. Well I haven’t been to Singapore but my guess is that being there and seeing the inviting state of the sidewalks makes a good enough argument against gum-chewing to settle the case any day.
But beyond all that, I have often wondered why no one has applied his mind to inventing a way to rid our sidewalks of the pock-mark eyesore left by chewing-gum on the surfaces where it is discarded. It seems to me that such an invention has the makings and ingredients for the great commercial success that living in America has now become all about. I can already hear the late night infomercials extolling the virtues of chewing gum graffiti erasers. Just spray it on each mark and watch it disappear miraculously into thin air with no scrubbing at all the voice-over announcer claims. Get a can already he adds followed by the obligatory get it now and get an additional can free. All fantasy you say and I agree but did you know that there is nothing like a good day dream to get a chuckle out of life every once in a while.
But on a more serious note, this post is not about gum-chewing but about the human horde that one can find at all times day and night walking about the streets of Manhattan or any other place on earth that we have come to view as a must-see destination before our time on earth is done. I am talking about all the places that the marketing wizards promote ad nauseam and tell us to visit now or we’ll never have the chance to do it later as it is all disappearing fast before our very eyes. And so we scrimp and save to get there only to find that everyone seems to be there already. It is not much different from that let-down experienced with buying the dream car that one has been eyeing for a while only to notice that everyone seems to be driving the same car after you bring it home.
I did most of my air-traveling in the seventies through the eighties and what a contrast traveling today strikes with that era. Back then it was quite common for the major Airlines to book inter-continental travelers into hotels for an over-night stay at no extra cost to continue on the next leg of their flight the next evening. It was an arrangement that presented a chance for the intrepid traveler to sample the great capitals of Europe by taking one stone to kill two birds so to say. Well that was long before the rapid expansion of airlines leading to the saturation of the airspace with planes and later the World Trade Center bombings which brought us to the fiasco called traveling-by-air these days. I still look at the seventies through the eighties era as the golden age of air-traveling as it preceded the travel packages and group tours that have become ubiquitous today.
But one city that I never really cared to sample in those days was New York even though I stopped at its airports countless times and had ample opportunity to do so. I could not just summon the courage to take a bite of it as they say. Perhaps it was the images of the run-down and drug infested tenements of its inner city or the horror stories about its subway trains not to talk about the peccadillos associated with the environs around Times Square. It is true that much of that has been cleaned-up and long gone but I found that one thing about New York remains constant. The masses keep descending on the streets of Manhattan and traversing its sidewalks night and day like migratory herds. I guess it is the same narrative that began with the early pioneers from Europe that continues till date in a way. We all seem to be trying to escape ourselves and past if not for good then only for a brief moment. In as much as the early pioneers sought escape across the ocean from oppressive regimes we today seek escape from the daily grinds that so oppress our minds, body and spirit. We go because we see others going and do because we seem them doing. But beyond the well-worn wisecrack about primates that such behavioral mimicry invites, what might be the true reason for the human tendency to seek to join the crowd? Might we be seeking to find something within the crowd that is missing in our lives? I dare say that we are but that which we seek can never be found amidst the jostling, bustling and hustling crowd but within each of us when we are at peace with the Divine.
Sorry bargainers and fool-hardy traders.
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 14th, 2015
I hope that you enjoyed last week’s post. In that post, I pointed out that many see living today as a rigged game that favors the well-to-do and leaves them little chance of winning no matter how hard they try. I stated that the poor and ignorant folk at the bottom of the pecking order everywhere, including the so-called middle class who are also being mercilessly squeezed, are asking very hard questions and airing a list of valid grievances that can no longer be ignored. I observed that as things stand today, a good majority of people on earth have come to the conclusion that the few who seem to have all the wealth and power might as well be aliens from different planets as they seem to share very little with the rest of humanity. I concluded with the reminder that history teaches us that whenever a stage is reached in human affairs when the majority becomes disenchanted to a degree bordering on hopelessness then daily living becomes a powder keg prone to explode with very slight provocation.
Well then on to this week’s post. Am I the only one that hears a voice asking what mankind’s hurry is all about? Much like children hurrying to gulp their food, there seems to be a paternal voice asking humanity what the hurry is about. We are so keen to taste every fruit in the forest that we have failed to hone in on the nutritious to be desired or truly identify the poisonous to be avoided. We are eager to trade off wholesome living for some measure of short-lived fun much like that extra piece of pie that assuages the emotional desires of the obese but compounds his health issues in the long run. Notwithstanding, some have come to argue that trade-offs are inevitable in life and often have to be made from time to time as part of that necessary bargain needed to sustain humanity as well as make the earthly experience fun. In that case, I can only say that we are truly sorry bargainers and fool-hardy traders who started out with a paradise but ended up with a pitiable mess as evidenced by the world in which we live in today.
But the truth is that all the talk about trade-offs is nothing but tired arguments trumpeted by the same lying tongues and greedy souls that will go to great lengths to try to separate us from common sense as long as it helps their short term gains. Whether there are called lobbyists or advocacy groups, has it not always been about the well-heeled using their money to try to present wrong as right, the crooked as straight, the untenable as worthwhile and the unsustainable as manageable through their minions. Are these not the masterminds who revel in a world of darkness and see the rest of us as puppets to be pulled by the strings any way they desire? Are not the rest of us not seen merely as chattel to be sliced and diced any how they want? Do not the records clearly show that the narrative of mankind’s sojourn on earth has always been about the mighty presuming to be right and insisting on shoving their idiosyncratic whims down the throat of the masses with little regard for common sense?
The day that we finally realize that wealth or power can never be equated with wisdom will be the turning point that will signal the dawn of a new day for humanity everywhere. Just to be fair, history also records that they have been some among us who have tried to do the right thing by humanity. But more often than not, these luminaries have ended up being demonized and ostracized for daring to shine a brighter light or point out the better way to go. The record of mankind’s earthly endeavors has been a losing battle for those voices of reason who advocate for the purer and better. Theirs have been experiences rife and replete with undeserved crucifixion for insisting that we do the right thing.
Being that we are spawns of a Divine Creator who has left as a bit of himself in us, isn’t it really shameful that we have not been able to put aside greed and selfishness for the betterment of all? And if I may further ask, why in Heaven’s name must we crucify the few among us who dare to hold up true light as messengers from beyond so the rest of us can be enlightened? As I write, I cannot help but recall one of such luminous soul Nicola Tesla. The names on the list are countless and encompass every work of life but I use Nicola Tesla to make my point. He advocated for laser beams instead of nuclear bombs as a deterrent to aggressions by nations, battery powered instead of fossil-fueled vehicles as a way to avoid pollution, and wireless transmission of electrical power so humanity everywhere can tap it freely from the earth amongst other advancement. But sadly, such voices are always silenced or shielded so that things end up darker in the long run instead of brighter. And so it is the clique of the powerful and wealthy, though seeming to win in the short term, that always starts a war with forces beyond mankind that humanity inevitably loses in the end. Certainly the water that flows down from up high is pure but it becomes polluted when we scoop it up because our hands are dirty. Our hands are dirty become the intentions of our hearts are never pure. Can we ever learn to keep our hands clean so that the pure water from above remains pure after we scoop it up?
And just so we do not forget, we may crucify the luminous souls in our midst but they do not die for their souls are like stars whose places are ordered across the sky. As an ode to them, I have to note that the star-lit night is the silver screen and canvas that reflects the handiworks of every luminous soul who has walked the earth in twinkling majesty for all to see. Each such soul is a winner in the divine scheme whose masterful work is held up in immortal display to shine brilliantly before mankind and for mere mortals to gaze at. Everyone that is willing to embrace the true and pure is cast for a role in the grand performance of life. There are different roles and parts to play in life’s drama but all must perform their divinely assigned roles with brilliant honor in the service of goodness to humanity. To perform brilliantly in life is to be deemed worthy to join the troupe of celestial stars who perform in endless majesty on the ultra-grand stage of the night sky. This is what life, the greatest gift to mankind, demands of each of us while selfless service to humanity is the little gift that each of us can give back in return for having been here.
Too much knowledge but little wisdom
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 8th, 2015
I hoped that you enjoyed last week’s post where I wrote about how the construct of race often injects an unintended layer laden with irony that saddles many among mankind with collective guilt that affects some much more than others. I pointed out that some ethnic groups wrestle with a collective guilt that often proves difficult for many of their own members to bear. I also mentioned how those that have rejected their racial identities at birth to identify with the less often speak about finding liberation of spirit in doing so. In concluding that post, I cautioned that we should not be too hasty to mock those who dare to climb down the racial barrier to identify with those perceived to be less among us as being misguided. Rather I suggested that should be applauded in their noble attempt to invalidate the idea of race and view nobility from a human perspective instead of an ethnic fog.
Well on to this week’s post. I have often wondered if we are swimming along on own volition or being carried away by the Information deluge to God’s where. It is true that today many among us have become knowledgeable in many areas and about many things in life. We definitely seem to know to know a lot as whatever we seek to know seems to be within our reach at finger-touch on a keyboard to at least browse if not totally grasp. And so based on this premise, one would think that ignorance or lack of knowledge would have become a thing of the past. Yet within this preponderance of knowledge, wisdom seems to have taken a long hiatus from us. It appears therefore that the problem is not the lack thereof but the un-wise way with which we are now using knowledge. We are no longer using knowledge as a gift to find long lasting solutions aimed at making the world a better place for all. Rather we have now come to seek knowledge as a tool to be used to concoct half-baked solutions or advance gimmicky approaches to living in ways aimed at bringing us short term gains while caring little for long term repercussions. We invent things that we don’t need but are deceived into wanting and splurging on them anyway with resources that could be used for better. But yet we neglect to invent that which we really need because the financial rewards may be relatively paltry in comparison. And God forbid that we invent something that is really needed and the sticker shock from the price that we affix to them is enough to invite an early heart attack.
You probably think that I make some of these things up. I wouldn’t believe me either except that it is all true. Since we are talking here about needed things and the insane prices affixed to them, let’s take a look at the newer and effective drugs being introduced into the market to fight bad cholesterol, hepatitis, cancer and rare liver diseases to help shine some light on the problem. It seems that those four are the major scourges devastating the U.S population and account for a huge chunk of health care costs. I can use any other item other than drugs to make my point but I suspect this issue will become front and center in our conversations when our collective fling with Donald Trump is over. It is common knowledge that most drugs have side effects and often do not cure but only help in managing symptoms. In order words most drugs are prescribed as stop-gap measures until a better that will do the job comes along hopefully. And so you will think that it should be cause for celebration when a drug that actually cures the targeted disease with no side effects to worry about comes along. But it seems that the pharmaceutical companies will have none of that. Rather their approach has been to slap prohibitive prices for every new generation drugs that they invent while invoking the need to recoup their research and development costs as justification for it. And how prohibitive are the prices you ask? Well how does an average cost of a thousand dollars for a pill or figures ranging from thirty thousand dollars a year at the low end to a hundred thousand at the high end sound to you. Well those who keep track of such things estimate that the introductory prices for such drugs should never exceed a third of what the pharmaceutical companies are asking for even with their research and developments investment costs liberally factored in. Mankind it seems can never invent anything needed without asking for the proverbial arm and leg. The well-to-do may very well afford such ridiculous prices but I dare say that the rest of us are not able to. It seems that the trend of living today is skewed to favor the well-to-do with little care for the rest of the populace.
But the poor seem to be getting wiser to it all with each passing day. They are beginning to fully comprehend that living today is a rigged game where they can never win regardless of how hard they try. Time was when upward mobility seemed possible for everyone but no longer is that the case. And so people everywhere are left with scratching their heads and wondering how things got to this sad state. Those in the remotest villages as well as the middle-class in urban areas are left asking the same hard questions. Why should one do the right thing when the rich are not doing so? Or why should one even give serious thought or care about the welfare of society when the well-to-do who seem to get the most benefits are less inclined to do so? Why should one risk going hungry to spare that monkey or gorilla for rich eco-tourists to gawk at? Why should one even care for eco-tourism when one has no stake in the tourism industry? The poor everywhere wonder why they should care seeing the countless times that they have been shafted by the well-to-do and their political cronies with un-kept promises too many to count? Why should they pay taxes when roads are gutted with pot-holes and schools are crumbling around them?
The list of such grievances may seem endless but no one can deny their validity. For the so-called poor and ignorant folk at the bottom of the pecking order these are astute questions that even the great philosopher Aristotle himself will have difficulties answering. And mind you it is not just the poor of the earth who are asking these questions but the middle class as well who are being mercilessly squeezed even in the most advanced of societies. And so as things stand today, a good majority of people on earth have come to the conclusion that the few who seem to have all the wealth and power might as well be aliens from different planets as they seem to share very little with the rest of humanity. History teaches us that whenever a stage is reached in human affairs when the majority becomes disenfranchised to the point of disenchantment with the status quo then the situation becomes a powder keg primed to go off at the slightest provocation. I dare say that it is not only a powder keg right now but one that is already smoldering and waiting for the slightest of sparks to make it go off. Whoever said that too much knowledge with too little wisdom is a good thing is totally wrong. In my view, little knowledge with much wisdom is preferably better if that is the key to make us become our brothers’ keepers again on spaceship Earth.
A chance to be reborn in better light
Kalu Onwuka Sept. 3rd, 2015
I hope that you enjoyed last week’s post where I pointed out that the human landscape is a magical garden and a marvelous blending of souls that takes the spirit within to perceive. I stated that the human family, for those among us able to see with an enlightened eye, can be a wonderful fusion of energies and cross-pollination of love impulses sprinkled with divine attributes that mirrors the splendor of the Creator. But sadly and to great loss, mankind foolishly and stubbornly refuses to open his heart so goodness can govern his actions so as to experience that magical place. Furthermore I reasoned that it is on account of such foolhardiness that the earth continues to be a world of fizzling and fussing parts splintered into many and disparate parts with little chance of ever finding true harmony. I concluded by lamenting that it is for this reason that the human family has become far removed from what it could have and should have been.
Well on to this week’s post. I have to confess that often times I cannot help but feel like an old-testament prophet as I begin to write each weekly post which after all is meant to be a spotlight on the human condition. Each week I search across the human landscape for that enlivening thread that says that hope is not totally lost yet and that there is still a chance at redemption for us. But in as much as I try very hard to do so it is becoming quite a challenge to find something positive and uplifting to laud humanity for. And so each week my fingers ploddingly labor instead of vigorously tapping on the keyboard as I work on each piece. Did I just deem my blog posts which I embarked on as a labor of love to be work? Well it never seems like work when I write about the uplifting and wish to goodness that I can find the positive to celebrate in ink. I mean the creative juices freely flow and the verses string themselves along with beautiful elegance when I write to pay homage to the uplifting in humanity such as the recently concluded Special Olympics. I cannot over-emphasize how I draw so much encouragement and timely inspiration from such occasional moments as it gives me a chance to celebrate humanity in an uplifting light and find some escape from the depressing darkly veil that drapes over humanity much like a cheap perfume.
But talking about the labor of love that each weekly post is supposed to be serves to remind me that I am motivated to write because things are not great as should be and not because there are. I do not write to condemn mankind for to do so will be to condemn self as well. I write because I am convinced that there is so much goodness in all of us that is enough to re-make earth in divine order if allowed to freely flow out instead of choked. I write because I refuse to hide among the silent majority who know what to say as well as do but will not say or do it so for any number of reasons. I write because it sets my spirit free and in an unexplainable but quite remarkable way fills me with a sense of peace that comes from knowing that I did my part in trying to change the tone of our conversations for better, tune our heartbeats to beat divinely, direct our footsteps towards the upright and our handiworks to excel.
It is in the light of changing the tone of our conversation that I look at the case of one of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and his claims to belong to a race other than that which his birth certificates indicates. It has come to grip our attention much like other cases earlier going back to beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. I dare say that such cases will now become more common place particularly with the young people eager to shed the cloak of racial, social or economic superiority to make them irrelevant. In all the known cases, the records show that each subject was indeed born as a member of a so-called privileged group but preferred to be identified with and live as part of another perceived to be less to the chagrin of their birth parents. But in all such cases, it was never economic, social or cultural gains that motivated their racial wall-jumping. The truth is that they would all been better served socially, culturally and economically by staying put with their birth racial identities given the realities of the times.
I mean these were all white people preferring to live and be known as black. They dressed, talked and lived as black for all intents and purposes in a noble attempt to undo social injustice as well as show that dignity was in being human and not in belonging to any ethnic group. It was never a malicious or nihilistic ploy on their part but a brave attempt to demonstrate that the only way to make the race boondoggle go away for good was to live as if it is never there. It is arguably a naïve concept but certainly a very laudable and noble gesture if you ask me. It bears repeating that all the case subjects had little to gain but much to lose by crossing down the racial divide. Call it hubris or a repudiation of that which they viewed as the means by which the worst in mankind is often displayed, they preferred to be categorized as humans instead of being lumped with one ethnic group over another. Perhaps time will yet vindicate their actions and validate them as I suspect that it will.
I have to mention also that without exception all such persons who dared to come down the racial divide not only came to see self as belonging with their ethnic group of choice rather than that which they parents had claimed, wished or wanted for them and felt liberated in spirit in doing so. Without exception, they all testified that shedding the dead weight of belonging to an ethnic group other than that which they were comfortable and identified with proved to be a deeply rewarding and liberating experience spiritually. It seems that there is a burden of collective guilt that often comes with belonging with certain ethnic groups that some among them can only escape by joining the perceivably ’victimized’. Trying to make sense of it all can become dizzingly knotted very quickly but it is an additional layer definitely laden with irony that the construct of race inadvertently saddles humanity with. It seems that some ethnic groups wrestle with a collective guilt that often proves difficult for some of their own members to come to grips with.
I truly hate to do this, but as I wind down I cannot help but bring up the transgender issue that has managed to find a place of honor around the sitting table of our minds. I mean we now applaud the transgender folk as brave and heroic. We even pay for the surgery to remake them from one sex to another of their liking even while they are in prison. But we are quick to mock those who climb down the racial barrier to identify with those ethnic groups perceived to be less in a noble attempt to invalidate the idea of race and view nobility from a human perspective instead of an ethnic fog. And so I am left to pose this question. Which transformation do you think makes humanity better in the end? Is it that wrought in the spirit within or that carved on the flesh without?