Photo by Lucas Ludwig on Unsplash    Hello Everyone! Welcome to my blog. This has taken a while to get started. Honestly, I think I have been overthinking this process and procrastinating a lot –trying to achieve perfection…which of course you can never really achieve until you get started anyway. So I guess I was merely defeating my intentions in the process. Everyone knows you can only get close to perfect by starting poorly, and then correcting, and correcting –and correcting!

My Inspiration

Anyway, what triggered me to start today is rather unusual –but I guess it provided the correct starting point for me because it made me focus on what is important. After the event which triggered me to action, I believe I am now less vane–or at least less affected by vanity.

So what was the event that triggered me into action? Well, my mother called me to let me know that a very elderly relative of hers (about 80 years old) whom she has been nursing from home had fallen very sick and has been refusing to eat and drink anything. As a result, the elderly relative had become very weak and had to be rushed to the hospital.

When they got to the hospital, the doctors ran all kinds of tests on her and informed my mother that all the test results were fine. There was nothing wrong with her except old age.

The hospital then told my mother that they couldn’t put her relative who had become very weak and couldn’t eat or drink on her own on a drip because the hospital had no cannulas! (Talk about seeing the direct effects of corruption first hand huh? –Okay, not to be dramatic…but why is a place that doesn’t have cannulas even called a hospital??? Like seriously, it should be called something else! Maybe they should call it a restaurant or a bus stop, or an internet café! –that will be more appropriate. How in the world is a place without cannulas even called a hospital honestly???).

A Rude Awakening

Well, anyway the whole episode taught me a harsh reality… At a certain age and at a certain point –and in certain instances, no amount of success or wealth can help the situation. The thing is my mother’s relative who is also badly afflicted by dementia seems to have given up on life. She can’t remember anyone –not even her own siblings. She is old and can’t move on her own without being assisted. All she does is wake up and be seated upright when she is placed in the living room and fall asleep in that position. So she has now reached the point where life has become so meaningless and tiresome that she has just decided to give up and hopefully go to rest for eternity.

All of this made me realise that because of the hands of time, you, me and everyone else who is alive is going to reach that point some day in the now seemingly far future (but it’s not that far if you think about where you were 15 years ago and how fast time seems to have moved since then. It feels just like the day before yesterday right? Yup! So technically, everything will happen in what will feel like “the day after tomorrow” –so you have a week at the most (lol!).

So this then begs the question…. Now that you know all this…why all the vanity? Why do we live like we will live forever? Like we will never die. Why???

Well, if there is anything I have learnt from all this –and from my life in general, it is this… To understand life, you need to understand death. But unfortunately, this important lesson or truth is just too depressing –or just seemingly too far in the future to even think about. So we choose to pretend that it will never happen –or that it is still very far away in the future –even though we don’t even have any idea whether we will be breathing in the next one hour. So what does this teach us? What can we learn from this?

The Takeaway

Well, the takeaway I have gathered from all this is that we should really take the time every once in a while to think about old age and death and try to understand the things that we will be happy about around the time we are going –or the things that we will regret around that time and try to create our desired outcomes once we still can.

Maybe if we did that we wouldn’t be so focused on superficial success and the meaningless gain of material possessions and things. Maybe that way we would think twice before stealing or plundering public resources which will rob an elderly old lady of a cannula that could sustain her life for just a while longer (Honestly, it is times like these that remind me that it sucks to live in an underdeveloped or ‘third world’ country). Do you think maybe people would stop their corruption and plunder of public resources if they could be shown a video of how badly their actions hurt others? Maybe they would be more sympathetic and less greedy. What do you think? –but I digress (sigh).

A personal preference

Anyway, I have really given some thought about what I would be happy about when I’m finally too old to move and do things on my own. I have also given some thought to the things I would regret. The truth is that apart from ensuring that the welfare and safety of my children and dependents is protected, money and material wealth did not come up in my thoughts that much. So I am starting to think that maybe –just maybe –we have life figured out backwards. I really think our egos take us away and greatly subtract from the things that really matter.

Most of my regrets as I imagined myself being that old were about not reaching or utilizing my full potential. The other things I also imagined myself regretting was how badly I treated certain people. Luckily, those people actually exist and I am currently taking steps to make things right with them while I still can. In a situation where you can’t really correct the situation anymore, I genuinely think not being able to correct your mistakes or right your wrongs would be something that would really bother you. You see, right now you may feel good about how you took advantage or “owned” a particular person –but trust me, you might not feel the same about it after a few years. When your thoughts change, it will come back and really haunt you (so I recommend you try to apologize and forgive while you still have the energy to do so).

Final Thoughts

Anyway in the final analysis, what I have learned is that the only thing most of us will care about in the end will really just be about kindness and goodness. How kind we were when he helped others in need and stuff like that. Ultimately, before you leave the earth, you will be most happy and proud about your kindness and good deeds –and how much of your potential you managed to achieve and materialize.

You will be even prouder and happier if you spent your energy and maxed out your potential in performing good deeds or kind acts for other people. It will take a lot for us to understand that this is what really matters as young people. In fact, we may never understand it while we are young. It is largely true what they say, youth is wasted on the young.

But we need to realise that we only focus on material wealth and money so much because of the way “stuff” is marketed to us young people on television and social media all across the world. Luxurious cars, flashy mansions and elegant clothing brands etcetera which appeals directly to our greed and irrational sides. I personally don’t think our greed and naivety would be as bad as it currently is if people were not advertised to so much by corporations through television and social media.  Which explains why it is good to go on a television and social media detox every once in a while just so that you can find and be in touch with your true self.

If you want to contact me, kindly do so @support@morrislungumastery.com