Decade Blogs
One of the reasons why I gave everyone offering to contribute to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series
commemorating my Decade
of Blogging free rein
to write on whatever issue, topic or story that they like, was it opened a window
into the diversity of our human existence.
Indeed, I have loved reading the blogs that have showered underserved
praise on me, but just because I provide a platform does not mean I should take
the best seat. My job here is to introduce, to curate, to edit, to schedule and
to publish – I do this with a great duty of responsibility that people would trust
me with their opinions, a sense of honour that people would respond to my request
to write for my blog and with deep gratitude and thanks for the many who have appreciated
me enough write.
I wish I could say more about Abubakar A. Musa, I cannot, apart from
some exchanges we have had on Twitter, but after reading this blog, I found this
is someone I would love to meet, in gain and in pain, for a person whose eyes are
open to the recognise the core of our humanity is the person that can be true in
all things.
We have had five Popes in my lifetime, they have over their reigns
done maybe significant things, but Pope Francis seems to have reached deeper into the soul of
our humanity with his touching and simple compassion, he has become the Good Samaritan example of our times.
Abubakar A. Musa brings to this page, many pictures of suffering,
pain and grief, the vulnerabilities and frailties of our humanity and asks that
we begin to understand what people go through, how it affects them and how it affects
us. Most of all he asks us to visit the sick, offering comfort and succour to them.
We must become considerately responsive with humaneness and our humanity.
I completely relate to this, I have been in a situation where a visit,
a word, a touch, a smile, a hand was all I needed to ease the pain, if only for
a while.
Challenging the humanity in us
I was just a little under ten years old, my father held my hand and
walked me through the various wards of the then, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Kaduna (now in Shika, Zaria). Ward after ward, bed after
bed, lots of people lying down with relatives and love ones rendering their support
and immortal comforts.
As we walked through, I saw certain family members in shatters and
disarray. While some were trying to comfort others, many were in high degree tears.
Poor me, my brain couldn't comprehend any bit of the actions of those people nor
the ones that surrounded them. I decided not to remain silent by asking my father
why those people were crying. I remember vividly, yes, I won't forget, how my dad
shook his head and said to me “at this stage, you will never understand what they
are going through.”
While walking through life, those words of his keep shaping my thoughts
and actions. Each time I was to be taken, either as a patient or escort, to the
hospital, the feeling of seeing people crying and or in pain always echoed loudly
in my head. True, I've seen many others since, but being my first contact with such
incidents and at my developmental stage of life, that first event was my greatest
TURNING POINT.
Today, I clearly understand such feelings. Today, I know what it
means to be lying on a sick bed battling for survival. Today, I totally comprehend
what it means to lose a loved one, a close associate, a companion, and even an enemy.
Ironically, it's today, after I can relate with such feelings and reflect on its
effects upon the humanity, that such incidents are becoming more than regular to
my eyes.
Every time I walk through our hospitals, public or private, the sympathy
of human souls battling for existence always met my first step. From the less disturbing
to the most severe ones, people screaming, others seeking comfort and some saying
goodbye. At that stage, the words of my dad always reverberate in my head. But,
unlike then, now I clearly understand what the sick ones are going through, and
what the relatives of the recently died are also equally going through. Each time
I find myself across certain wards of the hospital, the feelings aren't just frightening,
but the core of my humanity is always shaken.
Going through the oncology ward, the sight of many Cancer patients
will always make you weep, if only you're the strong type. Going through the special
care units and special care baby units, infants that are yet to know the meaning
of their existence and parents alike battling to exist against deathly ailments.
Walking through the female, labour, and the obstetric/gynaecology wards are equally
deeply painful and emotionally scary episodes. Mothers and primers trying to escape
the sword of maternal mortality.
While some deliveries are as successful as Michael Jackson in the
music industry, others end up with difficult complications leading to many kissing
the world goodbye. At the anti-retroviral screening (ARS) centres, the story is
less comforting. Depression upon depression, and the fear of stigmatization are
well embedded on the faces of the usually many patients. Many couldn't just understand
the meaning of life any longer while the few that could, end up facing the challenge
of societal rejection.
Of all these, one needs a deep human perspective to understand what
they and their relatives are going through. Unlike then, I do not need to ask anyone
anymore, because now, I understand what they are going through. I understand their
feelings and that of their love ones. I understand that life could be so cruel when
you least expect it. I, now, understanding that no human soul is more important
than any other. The words of my dad had made me to understand that no flesh is immune
to illness much as no soul is immune to dying. But above all, my constant visitation
of the sick ones has helped in shaping my positive reactionary human tendency.
Should anyone visit the above mentioned hospital wards and not feel
touched to the core of their human compassion, such person should re-examine their
human moral consciousness. Looking at my general looks, the healthy lifestyle I'd
lived and still living, I feel much lucky as a person. In between, I'd fallen sick
and might still do again, that I know. But I've every reason to be grateful for
the journey so far.
If you find yourself healthy today, if you find yourself comfortable
at this moment, irrespective of your past turmoil and challenges, cherish it, live
it, enjoy it, and be grateful to your creator as well. But do remember, you aren't
much wiser than those lying on the sick beds or those passing away every second.
It could easily be you on that sick bed, it could be you going through
that pain, and it could have been you that passed away. Everyone would, at a point,
go back to where we all came from. Reeling the feelings of good health today shouldn't
becloud our trait of sympathy towards those being tested by nature.
We should be thankful to God for such opportunity and ensure regular
hospital visitation to rewire our virtues of humanity. In the theory of relationships,
there's always a point of first contact. Your visitation to hospitals today and
fervent prayers could change some other person’s live. Challenge the other side
of you and explore the virtue of humanity within your composite make up. This life
is nothing but a test of our collective thoughts.
