Life is a journey. The most critical part of a journey, apart from reaching your destination is the view. And even then, when one reached the said point, the view on the way determines the quality of the trip. The experiences, the landscape, the clouds, the angles through which the sun cuts through the clouds or reflects off a flowing river.
John Lennon said it beautifully: “Life is what happens while we’re busy making other plans.” And that’s what happens. We get busy. We get too busy to appreciate. We also fall into the trap of categorising every event as good or bad, positive or negative things that make us feel good and things that don’t. but aren’t all experiences a part of life, and why must life always be pleasant.
There is a Zen practice called “drinking deeply” that involves breaking through the restrictions of a busy mind to fully appreciate everything for what it is. When we’re eating, you experience eating fully – the taste, the colour, the texture of the food. When you are in the garden everything becomes special: the flowers, the sky, the air, and the feel of the earth below your feet. And we are there, noticing and appreciating. We can take the time to do it.
Too often we forget this. It is good to remind ourselves that there is much goodness in the world, in the human heart. You will not see it on TV or on your phones. Just put down your newspaper and turn off your TV. Without any doubt, the mobile phone has done more to change our daily lives than any other invention in the past century. Namibians become quite emotional at the mention of “state capture”, but we seem to accept the greater capture – global capture by cellphone - without much emotion. The modern reality is that we wear our mobile phones in much the same way as criminals wear handcuffs. We cannot escape them and if we do bravely manage to shade them for a while we are accused of all sorts of antisocial behaviour.
We tell ourselves it’s important to be in contact at all times in case there’s an emergency. The reality is that we have few real emergencies in our lives. Most of our communications are frivolous. I know concepts like togetherness and ubuntu are noble ideas, but we do need to stand alone sometimes maybe we should all grant ourselves a few hours of phone-TV – freedom every day. Take a walk in your own neighbourhood. Visit the hospital to bring flowers and companionship to a friend. See the man who coaches little leagues and see the woman who teaches Portuguese to children.
When we visit such places, let’s leave that phone in the glove box of the car. No apologies, no explanation. There is no law that says you have to answer every time that little device squeaks. It’s just a machine. One of the ongoing horror themes of science fiction stories is the one where machines become too intelligent and start making their own decisions. Humans suddenly find themselves obeying computers, phones and submitting to a set of laws that are of more benefit to the machines than to the humans who made them. I suspect it may already be happening.
Andy Warhol said that life is art, and each of us is an artist and our life is our canvas. It is ours to create with whatever colours and images we choose. We create our own view, vision and understanding. As we enter the Holy weekend, one of the focal points of the Christian calendar, let us assimilate this information and be a blessing to the world around us. Let’s have fun, and above all don’t forget the view.
Blessings.
*Reverend Jan A Scholtz is the former chairperson of //Kharas Regional Council and former !Nami#nus constituency councillor. He holds a Diploma in Theology, B-Theo (SA), a Diploma in Youth Work and Development from the University of Zambia (UNZA), as well as a Diploma in Education III (KOK) BA (HED) from UNISA.