Human beings love good wishes. As long as we live, we continue to expect them. But it is also true or certain that not all wishes come true no matter how good they are, regardless of the sincerity of those who do so wish others. What we have here (above) as the title of today’s piece is one of those wishes.
This kind of wish (primarily) brings to my mind the issue of long life. But long life and youth are two different things. One thing is to live long whereas the other thing is to live young (or fresh). If someone lived ‘forever’ without having youth, what would such a person look like? A skeleton or what? I remember the man that lived for the longest number of years as recorded in the Bible. His name was Methuselah. He lived for 969 years. But that was a long, a very long, time ago in human history.
Can we look around us and see the old people with us? How ‘fresh’ do they look? Could we just walk up to any one of them and tell them to live forever? What do we think would be the reply from them after such a very beautiful wish is given to them? Are there not some of them who are even wishing that death would come and take them away from this wicked world? I am just thinking aloud. And I do know very well that thinking aloud is allowed.
One of the (supposedly) best wishes I have ever come across in life is this one above. But it is a kind of wish that raises mixed feelings as far as I am concerned. We can understand my position clearly if we try to probe into the reality or authenticity of this kind of wish being addressed to a fellow citizen of the world of mortals, even if as mortals we would, one day or the other, individually transit to the realm of immortality. Human life is made for ‘somebody’, ‘sometime’, ‘something’ and ‘somewhere’ higher and better than what we have here. It is something much more than the ‘here and now’ kind of belief. It is for the, ‘here and then’, ‘here and there’ or ‘here and hereafter’
For those of us that are very familiar with the Holy Bible, one of the expressions that were usually used to address (some of?) the kings of ancient times was: “O king, live forever”. The question – primary one – that this statement raises in my mind is: Is the king not a human being? And, again, what kind of feeling does this kind of ‘superfluous’ wish raise in the innermost being of the king (and, perhaps, those who do so wish the king)? Is it a show of sincerity of wishing a longer life for the king or just a mere demonstration of the senselessness or futility of humans’ mirage-like dream of wishing to live forever on earth with their mortal bodies? Does it also mean that those who so wished their kings and those kings had an understanding about the partial inherence of ‘immortality’ in humanity? All in all, did any of those kings actually live forever?
Man is a self-deceiving (and, in fact, self-deceived) being. Man has always deceived himself into thinking that the physical body could live forever. We find that there is a mixture of the belief in immortality and disbelief in immortality. How do we wish to live forever on this earth, yet not believe that life transcends the mortal stage? Don’t we see it in what we do and, at times, say? A mixture of beliefs tantamount to self-confusion and self-deception. We hear people say (in a pidginised manner or language): “kpata kpata man die go”, meaning that after all man dies and goes – just like that. As if man is just like the beasts of the fields, whose destiny goes no farther than their bodily or earthly life. Well, I don’t want us to deviate from the main thrust of this particular edition. So, let’s maintain the course on the reflections about one of the most brilliant (?) or interesting wishes to the kings of the past, and its relevance (as it were).
Back to our earlier question: Is the king not a human being? The simple answer is: NO! The king is a human being. Or, let’s take it a little further without begging the question. The king is a human leader. I think that is just what makes him a little ‘different’ from the other humans who address him as such or with such a ‘flamboyant’ expression or wish. I think this is one point that holds much relevance for all of us humans – the leaders and the led. And if you ask me, this ‘attitude’ has not changed in human transactions whether or not there are still places and peoples that (exactly) use this kind of expression (very misleading expression) to address their kings or leaders. It only helps to, misleadingly, console man and distracts him from his eternal ‘purpose’ and destination (as much as I think). Yes, it is a false self-consolation that makes man think that he can inhabit ‘immortal mortality’ as one can put it. But it is not true. Man’s life on earth is temporary, after which man goes to face his Maker to give an account of how his life was lived here. But man keeps evading this fact (or truth) by saying that all ends here as soon as one dies. Being self-deceived, and self-confused, man still clings to the assertion: “…live forever” (in this realm of physicality).
Although this is usually addressed to kings, for the purpose of this writing, I would say that even if it is not addressed to the generality of the people, it is actually what human life on earth seeks, wishes itself or portrays. So, both kings and their subjects need to rethink their thinking on this subject-matter of ‘eternal mortality’ on this side of life. They are all ‘guilty’ as charged. We shall expand on this as we do more explorations on the statement in our subsequent editions. Just keep your fingers crossed.
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