Sometimes it doesn’t rain. It pours!
You might have felt it many times in your life, – struggling and struggling and seemingly getting nowhere. What of all those dreams you had and still have? You wanted to get married at a particular age. You were going to get your own car before you turned 28. What of that house you wanted to call your own? – no house rent, no caretaker, no landlord because you are the house owner. What of children? You wanted to start having them early so that by age 35 you were done, knowing that by age 60, you will no longer be paying school fees.
Sadly, many years down the line, you realise that the dream still has a long way to go. No good job, no house, no marriage, no children! Sometimes, you have some of them and not all of them.
Is there anyone known to man or woman that has everything?
So be grateful!
Still, sometimes it doesn’t rain. It pours!
This reference to the weather phenomenon is only a metaphor for the various crises, tribulations, and problems human beings sometimes face. Sometimes, life’s many problems make you a better person as you swim through the tides of its many vicissitudes. Sometimes you are overcome and crushed under the weight of your many troubles. You begin to think of giving up. Sometimes, suicide becomes a more attractive course of action.
Suicide? How?
How does taking your own life solve anything?
It doesn’t!
It is only a false escape for the suicidal person whose untimely and forced departure creates a bigger problem of guilt, self-blame and emptiness for the living. People have described those who decided to end their own lives as cowards and utterly selfish individuals who were only thinking about themselves.
Maybe they are right!
Until you realise that people who commit suicide are usually depressed people.
And depression is an illness!
Therefore, depressed people need help – medical and otherwise. Much of this help is within our ability to give. They need our companionships, our prayers, and words of comfort. Sometimes, we are called upon to respond to their physical and financial needs.
But we must remember that those who choose to end their own lives are not always those with needs, the poor and physically challenged. Some of them are stupendously rich. Others are very accomplished individuals in various spheres of life. Yet, many more are the envy of so many others who would jump at the opportunity to trade places with them.
So how can beautiful, handsome, rich, accomplished, successful, physically healthy men and women not derive, and enjoy all the beauty and goodness that life brings their way? Why are they suddenly in a hurry to leave all of these things behind through suicide – a terrible and useless shortcut that is considered vile and tragic?
The answer is simple!
Beauty, wealth, sex, physical strength, successes, and accomplishments do not give happiness and peace of mind.
They are products of physical activities and are visible and tangible.
Happiness and peace of mind are invisible and intangible elements that accompany our human experiences. Sometimes they are embedded in our daily activities, especially when such activities end on a high.
Let us not forget that great king, who sought happiness in books, wealth, and women, and ended up with the inevitable conclusion:
“Vanity, vanity, vanity. All is vanity”
Yes! Happiness is not found solely in the physical manifestations of our visible world. It is found rather, in the physical world, working in unity and harmony with the creator of the visible and invisible world.
And while we are busy seeking to find real meaning to life’s various challenges, let us spare a thought to all peoples of the world that are facing incalculable physical and horrendous acts of senseless violence at the hands of fiendish foes. From Nigeria, to Ukraine, to Yemen, to Afghanistan, and others, let us pray for peace.
They too deserve their peace and happiness.
Sometimes, we can do without the rain or downpour.
And talking about Ukraine in her current battles with the big ‘ugly’ bear, the horrors of the violence and conflict are not lost on Africans and those from the middle east such as Syria, and Iraq. They have lived and experienced violence for so many years that they have lost count. Somalia and Libya were lost in like manner. Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Congo, etc. Senseless wars and strife have been part of our shared heritage. And the sad and tragic aspect of this has been the involvement of Europe and America in the destabilisation of the peoples in these continents.
Sadly, in the face of the Americans and Europeans, the gruesomeness of the ongoing war in Ukraine is not in the fact of the war itself, but in the fact that it is being fought on European soil.
