By Abdu Rafiu
The focus of my reflections of today is on the challenges of old age. However, one cannot speak about the challenges without delving into immeasurable blessings and beauty that trail and still line one’s path in the journey of life. What with a baby grandson of yesterday today grown up and enamoured with Nature running excitedly after squirrels in their tree habitats on the premises. And you say to yourself, what Grace, what a privilege! But today is not a day for reminiscences. These are reserved more for birthdays. The quiet reflections that come with phlegmatic temperament attendant with an advanced age, of course, take place from time to time in the closet. When I was availed of the experiences of a British lady at old age, my mind raced to Chief Chris Ogunbanjo’s dictum. Chief Ogunbanjo is wont to say to young men privileged to sit at his feet to learn wisdom: “Oke agba soro gun!” literally meaning climbing the higher rungs of the ladder of old age has its challenges. There are rules for the elderly. The steps get slower with the passing year or so. Experts who preoccupy themselves with the phenomenon, for example, admonish the elderly not to rush out of bed. You are to first sit at the edge of the bed for a few seconds to allow oxygen rush to the brain. Failure to heed the admonition could result in loss of balance with a disastrous fall as the accompaniment. There is loneliness as all the children have left home; they have gone their own way –and the end goes back to the beginning. The couple started out as two, they end up being two left in the house!
The lady in reference wrote thoughtfully an article on the internet. She is said to be retired. According to the post forwarded to me, she expressed deep emotions when she was about to go to a nursing home. The article is captioned ‘Relocating to Nursing home.’ The post explains that in Western countries, Old Age Homes Are Called Nursing Homes. The article reads:
“I am going to a nursing home, I have to. When life gets to where you are no longer able to take care of yourself completely, your children are busy at work and have to take care of their children and have no time to take care of you, this seems to be the only way out.
“The nursing home is in good condition, with clean single rooms equipped with simple and practical electrical appliances. All kinds of entertainment facilities are complete, the food is fairly delicious, the service is also very good. The environment is also very beautiful, but the price is not cheap. My pension is poorly able to support this. But I have my own house. If I sell it, then money is not a problem. I can spend it on retirement, and the rest will be as an inheritance for my son. The son understands very well: ‘Your money and your property should be enjoyed by you, don’t worry about us.’
“Now I have to consider preparing to go to a nursing home. As the saying goes: Breaking a family is worth tens of thousands, which refers to many things. Boxes, bags, cabinets, and drawers are filled with all kinds of daily necessities: clothing for all weathers and beddings for all seasons. I like to collect. I have collected a lot of stamps. I have also hundreds of purple clay tea pots. There are many small collections, and such small items as pendants of emerald and walnut amber, and two small yellow croakers. I am especially fond of books. The bookshelves on the wall are full. There are also dozens of bottles of good foreign wine. There are sets of household appliances, various cooking utensils, pots and pans, rice, oil, salt, noodles, flour, spices, various seasonings, in fact, the kitchen is full. There are also dozens and dozens of photo albums…, looking at the house full of things, I’m worried!
“The nursing home has only one room with a cabinet, a table, a bed, a sofa, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a TV, an induction cooker and a microwave oven—all the things I will rarely need. There is no place to store the wealth that I have accumulated throughout my life. At this moment, I suddenly feel that my so-called wealth is superfluous, and it doesn’t belong to me. I just take a look at it, play with it, use it. It actually belongs to this world. The wealth that come in turns are just passing by. Whose palace is the Forbidden City? The Emperor thought it belongs to him, but today it belongs to the people and society. You look at these, you play with these, you use these but you can’t take them with you in death. I really want to donate the things in my house, but I can’t get it done. To deal with it has now become a problem. Very few children and grandchildren can appreciate what I have collected. I can imagine what it will be like when my children and grandchildren are faced with these painstakingly accumulated treasures of mine: all the clothes and bedding will be thrown away; dozens of precious photos will be destroyed, books will be sold as scrap.
“Collections? If you are not interested, you will dispose of them. The mahogany furniture is not practical and will be sold at a low price. Just like the end of the Red Manson: only a piece of white left, so clean. Faced with the mountain of clothes, I only kept a set of pots and pans for kitchen supplies, a few books that are worth reading; a handful of teapots for tea. I bring along my ID card, senior citizen certificate, health insurance card, household register, and of course a bank card. Enough. It’s all my belongings! I’m gone. I bid farewell to my neighbours, I knelt down at the door and bowed three times and gave this home back to the world. Yes! In life, you can only sleep in one room. Any more of it is merely for watching and playing!
“Having lived a lifetime, people finally understand: We don’t really need much. Don’t be shackled by superfluous things to be happy! It’s ridiculous to compete for fame and fortune. Life is no more than a bed.”
This I must say is thought-provoking. The new recognition of the author about life and existence calls for celebration. It must have been intended to invite us her readers into deep contemplation which she herself must have undertaken to arrive at this point. There is no doubt that something is astir within her and she has ably shared it with the world so we can begin to ask questions: Who am I? The Temple of Apollo at Delphi in ancient Greece bore the inscription “Know Thyself.” The guiding rule of Socrates was the same:”Man, Know Thyself. Socrates was reputed to be the wisest man in Greece by the oracle at Delphi. World-wide he was known as a philosopher. And he said: “I must first know myself as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern while I am still in ignorance of my own self would be ridiculous.” The importance attached to such self-knowledge should urge us to reflect and ask questions and more questions. Who am I? Why am I here on earth? What is the purpose of life and existence? Is accumulation of treasures compatible with the purpose of life and the striving to fulfill it? It is a man who has reservations about life that seeks and in seeking lies progress. And it is the promise of the Laws of Life which anchor the Holy Will of the Most High that he who seeks must find. Didn’t the Lord Jesus say to mankind that he who seeks finds; knock and the door shall be opened unto thee? Through seeking the Rays of The Light of Truth dawn, penetrating the souls. There is an awakening, and man finds.
It has been stated in these pages a few times that man is spirit; he carries wrappings of the different planes round him only so he can manifest on the different planes he traversed on his way to the earth piloted by benevolent beings. For him to anchor on earth he bears the earthly body which is the last wrapping and makes him to be recognised as earthman. When he throws off the physical material body at death he becomes soul. If man is spirit it should follow that the purpose of his sojourn on earth cannot but be spiritual which following struggling with coarse materiality and the influences assailing him, leads progressively to spiritual maturity, self-consciousness and ultimately perfection. These are what constitute the ticket for admittance into the Spiritual Realm more generally known as Paradise.
How then is the pursuit of earthly possessions compatible with spiritual strivings? The question becomes even more germane in view of the statement by the Lord Christ made to the Rich Young Man (Matthew 19: 16-24; Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible) who had asked Him: “Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” First the Lord objected to the man referring to Him as good. He said “There is none good but One, that is, God.” After the Lord told him what to do and he replied that he was already doing all that the Lord said unto him: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou shalt hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.”As we now know the admonition was target specific. It was meant for the young ruler only. His wealth was constraining his spiritual striving. In other words, as we now know through the higher knowledge on earth in these times, it is erroneous to conclude that every rich man has forfeited the chance of going into Paradise on account of his material endowments even if he makes the right spiritual endeavours. Earthly possessions are gifts from the Almighty. The table is richly laid, it is said, and each may approach the table of the Lord according to his capability and capacity. Earthly possessions are a necessity to protect that which is sacred in man, his spiritual part. For his striving and endeavours he should not make himself vulnerable by being dependent on the good will of any man, group or institutions. By doing so would amount to cheapening that which is high and sublime. Although such gathering of earthly treasures are not incompatible with spiritual striving, generally speaking, it is each person who has to decide what is of benefit to him and what hinders his spiritual progress. Being gifts, material possessions should not be despised. Indeed as we now learn in the revealed knowledge, it is in the performance of the greatest achievements that we present the greatest gratitude to the Creator in the realisation that the attainments are possible through His Will. Thus, the more that is achieved the higher the recognition of His inconceivable greatness and the more the gratitude.
The material endowments would also serve man as a shield against and an instrument to ward off like with like especially in the world of the unscrupulous that have earthly possessions as ready tools. The Lord was often a welcome Guest in the homes of the rich and the wealthy. He was not poor contrary to wide-spread wrong impression that He was. The wealth He did not need did not make meaning to Him. The lesson in the admonition the Lord gave to the rich man is that man should not cling to earthly possessions and make their acquisition the sole aim of earthly life. Through a feeling of being special and the pleasure the possessions bring and for whatever reasons, the pursuit soon becomes addictive and choking. When the pursuit seizes the soul man loses the ability to look upwards and soar.
The materials the lady listed were necessary when mankind needed them. Our so-called inventions were brought from beyond the earthly, from the plane called medium gross matter, and revealed to the Lord’s own in their sleep, to those who were humble. They have been fashioned in the planes of the Beyond. They were borrowed from there for the use of mankind. They came, including the most surprising and jaw-breaking, in the sequence human beings needed them and were mature to receive and use them. We are told the best are yet to come! Possession is different from the application. Where are the typewriters today? Where are telegrams? Who buys money orders today? Queues are shortening in banks with electronic money transfers through POS which litters every neighbourhood. We are living in near total cashless society. An aircraft going from Lagos to Tokyo will require about 14 hours reaching there and will undoubtedly run into turbulence and may refuel. Punching certain numbers in Lagos will get to the same destination within seconds using cell phones. The call will suffer no turbulence. It travels at the speed or near the speed of light. It is all a product of the technological wonders of our age. It may not be long when libraries may go out of fashion with the unrelenting threat by Google! Classes are held through Zoom. So are meetings.
The lady, therefore, need not distress herself about acquisitions she has made. There is the consciousness of old age which she has evinced and the recognition that old age need not be a terror but a spur for more contemplation, higher recognition still followed by victorious knowledge leading thereby to joyful activities. She has recognised what is of value and what she may have considered are of no profit upon which she probably had wasted time pursuing and which must now be discarded. What is of value she has taken. Some of the possessions she may wish to pass on to charity or archival organizations. Whatever else she leaves behind will take care of themselves. What is important for her as it is for everyone else among us mankind is to be able to answer the question: Where does my path lead me after earthly life? Upwards to the Light or downwards into the darkness? Is it to salvation or to damnation? It is the all important question of life and existence her movement to the Nursing Home has raised.
The Guardian
