so a stranger can live

As human beings, we are naturally predisposed to act from a vantage point of self interest. We do things in a way that will yield most benefit to us, and if there's harm to others, this is very often a secondary consideration. That must sound horrendous, but it is "only human" [that little phrase that was invented to cover every mistake man makes. apparently there's an entire website dedicated to them!]. There is however another class of person. People to whom sacrifice is a way of life. People who think of others before themselves. The United States Coast Guard has one such class: an elite group of swimmers called Rescue Swimmers. Not surprisingly, their mantra is "So a stranger can live." There is a song, by Bryan Adams called Never Let Go, that was probably written for a movie but really got me thinking:

Can you lay your life down, so a stranger can live
Can you take what you
need, but take less than you give
Could you close every day, without the
glory and fame
Could you hold your head high, when no one knows your name
That's how legends are made, at least that's what they say

I don't know, these sound like important questions for all of us to ask ourselves, because it seems to me they go to the very core of our humanity. This self-serving predilection was actually not an intention of the creator. Man was made with fellowship in mind. How much would we really be willing to do for others? In fact we could even [for the sake of our sanity] set the bar a little lower than the song, how far would we be willing to go for our friends?

We live in a time and society that worships star power. Name recognition. Celebrity. So when someone does a kind deed, they are like companies - they probably want the media there. To, you know, let everyone know. It is, after all, news, [that someone has committed a random act of kindness]. Or maybe even on a much less grand scale, we'd like our friends to know all the things we do "out of the kindness of our hearts." In fact, this public acknowledgment is ostensibly so important that the Reader's Digest has these days created an entire regular column called [aptly] "Kindness of Strangers" [but at least to the Digest's credit, it is the recepient of the acts who write to this column, not the doers]. But assuming there was no fame and there was no glory attaching, would we still do the things we do?

I heard this story in January about this woman who, watching Bethuel Kiplagat talking, called the network and asked how she could get in touch with him, she wanted to help. She's a counsellor by profession, and apparently by April she'd seen over 4700 people and couples. I cannot even imagine the tragedies she may have in so doing averted. Just one person, who decided to reach out to a stranger. How many of us keep asking ourselves "Really, I'm just me. What can I do?" Apparently a lot. And until we try, we can never know. Hellen Keller was an american woman who turned deaf and blind at age 2, and so this of course meant she also couldn't talk. But she did not let this deter her. She wanted to change the world, and change the world she did.

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can
do something; and just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do
the something that I can do.

END

the trick is to keep breathing

Im just recovering from the worst attack of malaria like ever. So bad in fact the doctors couldn't even see it in my blood - it's learned how to play dead!! Yikes! Or maybe it was just burnout. Either way, I was six feet from the edge for quite a while, and it was not heaven. Musta had something to do with that night shift I'd been working lately. Id like to say I took the time to sit back and reflect on my life, and strategise for the next phase just about to begin, but nooo. I spent the time under the influence, and those times I wasn't I took sleeping pills, or hit my head really hard against the table. That's how bad the pain was. But having gotten better, I have realised one thing, Murphy be damned, when things appear at their most hopeless, that's usually when our miracle comes. Ever hear the saying "It'll get worse before it gets better"? Ya, there's apparently a ceiling as to how much worse it can get, so you can actually get to that point where it can't possibly get much worse, and the only way to go is better. I was there, although only for a day, and let's just say I've had better days.

The thing you really need to do is to not give up. To hang in there. The trick is to keep breathing. When life throws you a curve ball and you can't hit back. When you get dumped (or dumped on - never exchange words with the garbage man BTW, take it from me :) ). When there's too much month at the end of the money (that might actually be all the time). When the examiner tests everything you dint read and ignores everything you did (perhaps because it was all FHM and Sports Illustrated - these examiners can be such a drag sometimes! :) ). When you find you haven't landed your dream job, and are instead stuck selling insurance to people who would much rather have bread and milk. When the one day you're late for an interview is the day an oil tanker falls across the entire road. When you do get your dream job, but get the boss from hell who never lays off. When the bank forecloses on your house, or the landlord doubles the rent. When the person you love does not love you back. When you're handed lemons, make lemonade, and then find that people actually prefer icecream. When you land in the taxman's radar. Or when it's just one of those days. The trick is to keep breathing. Everything else will work itself out with time. You just keep breathing.

Fleetwood Mac were right on the mark. (that's a fun phrase, Fleetwood Mac on the mark :D) They say in their song Don't stop:

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop it'll soon be here
It'll be better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.

The trick is to just keep breathing. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

END

ideas are like stars

It's been a while since I wrote, and with good reason - I got a job!! See ordinarily that would be a good thing, but when they said be careful what you wish for coz you might just get it, I think they were onto something, coz get a job I did. And the night shift no less! You know the way when you sleep at 8 and have an early morning the next day the night seems to last like 15 minutes? Trust me, it's all in your head. Nights typically last for three weeks each - at the very least! There have been times when I've stayed up, dozed, taken coffee, dozed some more, put on thirty pounds, and looking at my watch, found it to be only thirty minutes later. You actually start to crave for mornings. And of course fate being fate, the sun does not rise. Ever.

But I digress. I was looking at the US polls (Zimbabwe have censored all their news so it's not that Im being unpatriotic - it's that I don't own a news agency so I have to watch what CNN decide), and I noticed Obama has now eclipsed Hilary. All that talk about him creating a new wave, a movement, has started to come to fruition. I learn the thing about movements is that you're either in them or in the way, much like the Japanese Shinkasen (trains). In the movie V for Vendetta, he was faced with all these british cops who had guns and told him so, and he said, "No what you have are bullets, and the hope that by the time you're empty Im not still standing, because if I am you'll all be dead before you've reloaded." So they fired till they were empty, then he just says in that chilling voice, "My turn," and what happens next was just poetry, literally, there was even an opera playing in the background. The lead inspector was the only person left, and was firing shots at V and V just kept walking towards him, so he was like "Die! Die! Why won't you die??!?", and so naturally V took it upon himself to explain (of course while strangling the guy): "Because beneath this mask is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof." - of course in V's case I think it also helped that he was wearing a steel breastplate that tended to stop the bullets :)

And apparently that applies even in life. Obama is just one of those people that exudes confidence. He has that look in his eye that tells you he really believes whatever it is he's telling you. He actually respects the opinion of experts (do you know how many leaders of latter days actually do that? You'd be surprised!). He places a lot of faith in people's intelligence and their capacity to make the right choice given favorable circumstances, and, he tells it like it is. Obama is a classic modern-day idea. In fact, it was from him that I first learned that governments aren't supposed to build an economy, they're supposed to create an environment fitting for the private sector to thrive, and for a middle class to grow (Ok, maybe Id also heard that from Economics class, but it was much less interesting then). That is one thing we are lacking in Kenya - a middle class (actually we currently also don't have a chain of command that extends beyond the president, but that is another story for another day). We have the rich, and those who literally live on faith - I guess coz everything else you have to buy with money which they don't have. Real sad.

Victor Hugo said, in 1870, that there was nothing more powerful than an idea whose time had come. Not even the sound of marching armies. And he was right. We've seen it time and time again. With broadcast TV, with internet music downloads, with (napster and kazaa) file-sharing networks, with democracy, with unions and collective bargaining. Give the masses hope, provide meaningful challenges and rewards, trust them, then get out of their way - they'll knock your socks of. Is Obama really really the next big thing? He certainly does represent that new principle.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once described the measure of a man:

Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy... The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Obama has certainly made it clear where he stands. From the beginning. No black has ever before him done what he's done. Parallels are already being drawn between him and Dr. Martin Luther King. If he's an idea whose time has come, Id go to church if I was Hillary, or McCain.

END