It's almost a given that 100 years from today, none of us would be here! This means that everything; Yes, everything, including land, expensive yachts, sky-high buildings, exquisite mansions, holiday homes, exotic cars, jewelry, shares, everything owned by everyone living at the moment would either be gone or owned by other people. So why the fuss? Why behave as if we are going to be here forever? And why the pretence that we actually own anything?
This is neither a call for people to do away with creativity, or cast aside personal ambition, nor is it a call for a pity party to mourn our impending mortality. Rather, it is a call to the admission that life is temporal, so we need must put things into perspective and change our way of life. It's a call not to take life too seriously, and to the understanding that while we may use the things of this world such as wealth and position, we must not be engrossed in them.
The Yorubas from whom I have borrowed the title of this essay are very dismissive of people who behave as if they have the future all buttoned up. Although they may hail you because they had to, the Yorubas are equally scathing of people who cop an attitude, mistreat others and those who are ostentatious with their wealth. Why the 'gragra' they would say? Why adopt a body armour as standard clothing when life is temporal? Why the braggadocio?
Certainly no one wears body armour as their everyday clothing. Not even Roman soldiers these days. The subtext however, is that even if you wear a garment made entirely of iron, it doesn't protect you from the certainty of death. So what is the strutting about? Why put on airs of invincibility. Truth be told, How long do we have on this earth to put down so much roots as if this is the ultimate destination.
Life is temporal. While this should not necessarily scare us; what it should do, is to get us thinking about how we live our lives, how we treat others and the impact of our actions on people. These ideas are certainly worth a consideration. PostcardfromLagos
