Decade Blogs - Mister Mobility - Not all those who wander are lost

Decade Blogs

Mister Mobility is a pseudonym and the preferred public identity of a man I have known from the blogging world many years ago when he was a no-nonsense exponent of biblical hermeneutics. I agreed with many of his views and some were compelling enough to force me to comment on some of his blogs.

At the same time he was what I would call a mobile phone propeller head, having owned over 100 devices, he is a compendium of knowledge on mobile device usage and usability.

Then again, he has one of the most grounded heads of my social media interactions, smart, wise and reasonable, he is definitely someone I would love to meet.

I am highly honoured to have Mister Mobility write for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Simplicity, fun and humour belie a seriousness in the messages and witticisms he shares on social media tweeting with the Twitter handle @Mister_Mobility and blogging at Mobility.ng.

In this article, takes the ordinary and gives it deeper significance, our version of the truth might not be the truth. There is much to learn from this.

Not all those who wander are lost

“There is no-one that I cannot speak the truth to!” Those were the words of my number one mentor some weeks ago when we sat down to discuss certain issues. As I sat there, I reflected on several situations in which he had supposedly spoken the truth to people, and how he had been off the mark to certain degrees, and how his biases had shown through each situation. There is no question about his being a bold, straightforward man. No, his boldness was not the question. Where the question mark lay was what he considered the truth.

I am only in mid-life, but I have seen and heard enough in life to now be amused whenever an individual arrogates sole possession of the truth to himself. More often than not, what he holds to so tightly is his version of what he believes to be the truth. And usually, that version is soiled in some way. That version may largely contain truth, but his outlook and upbringing are likely to have tainted the picture in some way, such that he is missing a key element. And this excludes no-one.

For example, even historical truth is largely a question of who you are reading or listening to. Consider also for a minute, a married couple who have had an altercation, and when each party tells recounts to a third party or counsellor, their two versions do not line up. Yet, neither set out to lie about anything. They have spoken “the truth” to the best capacity of their faculties. Frail, faulty human faculties. They have only recounted the episode as their mortal minds perceived that it happened.

Two pastors might pick up the same Bible, and even though they belong to the same denomination, and perhaps were taught by the same theologian, they still differ to varying degrees on certain subjects. Yet, each believes that he speaks the truth.

Oh, but I am a believer in truth. I believe that there is always a truth to every situation and to every subject. It just seems that God has designed the world and life to mock us each time that we get as smug as to think that we have become authorities on to what is and what is not in every situation. Perhaps He sits and laughs at the frailty of the human mind and our sense of capacity. I have long resigned to that. Perhaps He designed things to make sure that no-one knows it all, has it all, or has it all together. But then, my position might just be off the mark too.

Now, I live at peace with myself, secured in the comfort that I do not have to know it all or have it all together. I remain a learner and keep seeking truth at every point, exploring this huge universe, sometimes threading where others fear, sometimes hitting a wall and then retracing my steps. Life is certainly adventurous that way, though sometimes it hits had. But then, life hits us all hard at some point in time or the other. What do I have to lose? Life as an ongoing adventure works much better for me than life locked up in a mansion, no matter how magnificent and well equipped.

I stumbled upon a phrase some years back, and fell in love with it instantly. It has become one of my rallying cries, a slogan to live by. It is a line penned by J. R. R. Tolkien from the hugely successful The Lord of the Rings. Here is what it says:

"Not all those who wander are lost."

This is the summary of who I have become, the person that I have embraced and the life that I hope to live till my last breath. Perhaps there is another angle to Mister Mobility beyond the field of mobile phones. This is life on the go.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

From the poem, All that is gold does not glitter in Chapter 10 of the Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings.

My congratulations to my egbon on his 10 years of blogging.