Long Life and Other Funny Human Desires

By

Obododimma Oha

Humans have so many interesting desires: desire for food, shelter, safety, their bodies, etc. Was it not one thinker, Abraham Maslow, that tried to arrange them in the order of priority (is that necessary?) and to predict them? That is not my concern here. You will realize my concern soon. But as noted, humans have many desires and they can kill one another to have any of them satisfied! Anyway, one of the chiefest of these desires noteworthy is longevity. Humans want to live long, if possible, enter the Guiness Book of Records as the longest ever living soul. So, let us clap hands for the longest living. After that, let us remind the soul that it should go to either Hell or Heaven, according to the order of Christian theology.

So, the first thing gained is the applause for being the longest living. Nothing more. We, as mortals, want to be the first and the best. But we do not forget that we are located in a shithole. One thing about the shithole is that it stinks terribly! So, remaining there longer is a great punishment. It is thus puzzling for one to stay in shithole where one is complaining of the terrible stench and be troubling the Maker for longer life! What longer life? Are you in love with self-inflicted suffering? What is the justification concerning all the prayer and tongue-speaking for longer life?

If there is anything that anyone in a shithole should be asking for, it should be immediate removal. One cannot stay a second longer in this terrible shithole. Deliverance! Immediate removal!

Who sets a goal then works against it? If we understand where we are headed, if we understand life, we should leave God alone to do what He will.

In the first place, it shows that we don’t really know what we we want and we disturb the Maker a lot with our confusion. We should allow the Maker some peace to face the ceaseless work of creation.

Further, it only shows that we do not understand what life is. We have put on the cloak of mortality on a planet called “Earth,” but if we know that Creation has to be Creation, we should figure out easily that it is endless, that the dress of mortality called human flesh is only one of the numerous forms made possible by Creation. Human form is not the only form and cannot be the only form. The Maker is working with other possibilities and wants us to join Him, not ask for long life or more time.

It is also important for us to understand that this human form has expiry date. It is configured to last for a period. Thus, being time-set, it is not going to last forever, even if there is something to gain from it. The Maker will crumple old technology that is the human form and re-use it for a hi-tech. In other words, short life (if that means anything) is part of Creation’s plan!

I like the beautiful way it is represented in an African thinking. Earthly life is understood as a market experience. One goes to the market and comes home after all the shopping. In Nigerian public discourse, anyone that remains in the market after their shopping, after market people have all gone home, is either a “gofment pickin” (metaphor and euphemism for the insane) or a vulture. And we do not aspire to be both. So, we have to return home to be reformatted and redeployed.

The problem is that of fear. Fear for what? It is a step into the dark. We do not know where we are headed; we cannot find our way in a darkness! So, we are afraid. Then, live well and just close your eyes and allow yourself to be transported.

Now, remember you are on a shitty planet still. You are in this shithole and you are bothering the Maker for a longer stay. Maybe 2,000 years! Imagine staying for extra 2,000 years in a shithole! You want to turn to a lizard or a fossil? 2,000 unholy years! Well, while you are bothering God with that request, do not tell him again that you are in a shithole and to deliver you. Because he may decide to make your stay shorter!

I like the Christian thinking that sees a thousand years in his sight as just an evening gone. In that case, the maker’s idea and signification of time is different. An evening (just few hours) in our world may be his 1, 000 years elsewhere outside this planet. In that case, his idea of time is different and we may be trying to humanise him, even make him our errand boy, by imposing our idea of time on him to follow! A thousand years in his sight being just an evening gone only reminds us that God has to be allowed to be God and we should do our bit and stop bothering him!