17

In the last 2 years, no thanks to my small body frame, I have often been asked what my age is. My answer has always been a wholesome "17 years". Most of the times, this would spark laughter and disbelief on the face of my enquirer. This has become a cliché of mine, injecting mirth to frank conversations, my receding hairline and sometimes the length of my undergraduate training doing me no favours at the end.


For those who stretch the questioning far enough as well as for those who I feel obliged to tell more about myself and my ways I go on shed more light on my professed age:

Much of the life I live now was either dreamt of or the foundation of the dreams I now have was laid when I was 17. It was the age at which I really concretized my thoughts into building the adult life that nature and nurture had moulded me into; much without pre-mediation. I also determined at that age that my next major outlook at the course of my life would be at age 35. And as that next milestone approaches, I dare say that I have reached most of the fundamental desires I hoped to reach by that age. Quite frankly, not all my desired goals have been realized, I am still on the path to some while I have had near misses with others. Yet, there are some desires that I have had to either modify or erase completely.

Life is dynamic and I learnt early that if one takes too many things as matters of life and death, one would die many times. In other words, I have tried to avoid the extreme in some issues of life so as to gain happiness. My attitude has grown to be that of positivity and I feel a churn in my guts every time I am able to sense resourcefulness out there. It's been a progressive path and my faith in God has been pivotal to all of it.

So if I am living the life anchored from when I was 17 why should I not answer to being 17 years? I have often wished I could live that year of my life again, although figuratively, it remains my age until I am 35.

WALKING AWAY

At the end of the my working hours when I start out to leave the work place, I often make an effort to keep a straight face, pretend to be engrossed in a conversation with a colleague...or my favourite, gladly speaking into a phone if I am coincidently receiving a call. These have been my recurrent but apparently futile "shows" to conceal my deeper emotions from the "usual" crowd still waiting to be attended to in the health facility where I engage my so-called trained skill.


A few weeks ago when I was in the private setting, the crowd in the waiting section was almost looked forward to. Of course, the larger the crowd the greater the income since the waiting room in a private healthcare facility is only occupied by those who can afford the higher fees of private care. However, that crowd is fickle compared to the endless queues in the public facilities. Indeed the poor are usually sicker in number and in severity (apologies).

Human wants may be said to be insatiable, but even the necessities of life never seem to go round. It's almost a vain dream to think the world as we see it now is going to be a perfect place. It's only as good as we make (or even as we take) it. There would always be inadequacies in healthcare, food/water supply, clothing and housing; the supposed basic necessities of our species. This is not to undermine the efforts in the world over aimed at providing these basics of human living. If anything, every individual involved in such efforts should be commended as people living beyond themselves. Their passion is always so evident and by all means everyone should strive to give back to humanity.

I know some feel it's almost human injustice for someone to purchase expensive gems and toys when out there are one thousand and one hungry stomachs unsure of the next meal. Well, human needs change with income. The dynamics of our needs are so variable. I am tempted to think along the lines of the Master those many years ago: "The poor you will always have with you".

Going back to my antics as mentioned in the first paragraph, I have found much peace that I do my job to the best of my ability. Instead of yielding to the personal emotional blackmail at the end of work, I'd focus my thoughts on the good I have brought to those I have had the privilege to attend to.


For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. Mark 14:7.