Monday, June 18

A Stitch in Time...

It’s been 2 weeks since that crash that clothed the atmosphere of Nigeria and beyond in dark and unrelenting mourning clothes. The days following refused to bring comfort or succour…people remained dazed and blank. 
But, a day or two before this crash, petrol tankers had exploded along the Lagos-Ibadan road, only God knows how many people were roasted in that…but it never generated the kind of horror or pain or publicity that the air crash generated…could it be because we never have an exact number of casualty in one case, but do in the other…? Or could it be because air crashes are far and in between? But are the deaths less tragic?  This muse is not about the outcry on air crashes as opposed to road accidents, no. However, if anyone has answers to my questions above, please, educate me. I strongly believe I need closure in that area.
This muse was brought on by an ‘eerie’ (this is the only way I can describe this article because it succeeded in making me break out in goose-bumps) post I read here. It got me thinking, but not in the direction that the majority of the author's thought is tilted. Having aired his feelings about flying a week after the crash I wondered:…what about those who had to fly immediately after, or sometime during that very day? I had another good friend in Abuja coming in to Lagos that fateful day, when I had ascertained he was not in the plane that crashed, but was in fact going to take his own within the hour, my heart, nonetheless,  jumped in my throat. A few minutes after they boarded, I sent a BBM and for an entire hour or more, my eyes were glued to my phone, anxiously waiting for that little letter ‘d’ that would make all the difference in the world…at this time I hadn’t even heard that another friend was in fact in the plane that crashed! When eventually I saw that little letter ‘d’ that meant he had at least landed and had put on his phone, my relief was palpable, I felt like someone had pushed all the air out of my body! But as if that were not enough, I suddenly remembered again that my boss was to leave Lagos for Abuja, also within the hour! Isn’t there an end to this torture?? I recalled calling to ask if he wouldn’t cancel the trip, but he said he had to go, and indeed, he must, and he did. And returned, he is next door as I write, thank God!
My point is this, life goes on. Airlines will not cancel flights because there is a crash, people cannot but travel despite air crashes. As for crew members, I cannot even begin to imagine what goes on in their minds each time a plane is taking off or each time they read about a crash...especially those who have to fly almost immediately after the news breaks. I have a sister who is Cabin Crew, but because she loves this job, I have learnt to behave like she is just going to work at that Office in Victoria Island! And indeed, no matter how difficult or risky a job, any job is, there must be people willing to do them. My sister upped and went to work the very next day, life goes on!
A few days after the crash, I was also on a plane. No matter how bad it is, I can’t imagine travelling by road, and like the author above said, we can hardly disappear here to reappear at our destination. Necessary evils, evils nonetheless. So, on  takeoff, I prayed and committed my soul to God, and did the same while we are in the clouds, each minute I am wondering who in their right minds would create this monstrously heavy metal to fly in the air, (I have a friend who says when he is in the air, he keeps saying to himself ‘we are not supposed to be here, why are we here??’) and also do the same for landing…thankfully, I am here to tell the story. But just as with anything in this life, people move on, nations move on, families move on. Memories fade.
The crash has taken over 153 (has anyone said anything about the ground casualty?) people away but life goes on, it is business as usual. Give it a few more weeks and we would be preoccupied with something else, if not immediately, after all, Boko Haram is already on rampage and so our attention is shifting.
What marvels and renders me, and many others I assume, speechless,  is our inability to learn anything from our experiences. I shall not even bother to talk about the many ways in which many things could have been avoided, if only…. I don’t think we even need to go as far blame the Government, they are too far. How about beginning with self? How about  speaking up when we should. How about not being laid back and lackadaisical about things, ‘it’s none of my business’, if only we could learn to make some things our business, if only we would learn not to sit back and be mediocre, if only we knew our rights and take people and government up on them...if only we learnt to put our foot down. I wonder why a goat will only react when it is pushed to the wall, what about the  level of damage that would have been done before it hit the wall?! A stitch in time saves nine….a stitch in time! But so many stiches are missing I fear a great big tear is in the offing...
Life. Goes. On. Sadly.
Be free oh.

Photo courtesy Google Images

3 comments:

  1. Lol at your friend, I remember I used to say, 'I really want to come down' less than halfway into the journey, especially at any sign of turbulence. The very nature of life just compels us to move on. The sun has not failed to rise and set since that day. The calendar is moving, the clock keeps ticking. It's surreal...

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  2. From another perspective, I also lol but not at your friend rather at humans or should I say bible professing humans. The very fact that no matter how much we hear,know, even speak and pretend to believe (on a peripheral level) that this world is not ours,that we are only pilgrims or sojourners here,that it is not God's will for us to die just yet,that a good Christian should always be prepared to go home (die) at any time; we sometimes (No! rephrase that to, most of the time) don't really want to die. lool.
    And we explain it away (our desire not to die, I mean)to ourselves, hoping to convince ourselves that "afterall, we have not finished what Jah had sent us to earth to do" or is it "I shall not die but live..." or is it "God forbid, speak for yasef, I know the will of God concerning me..." or maybe it is "God speaks to me and He did not tell me that I was going to die today" bla bla bla.
    Such that even if "we" were on that plane,I am very sure that our first instinct will not be to smile to ourselves as if we were the possessors of a great secret and say "Father into your hands I commit...". Rather, most of "us" would be crossing our hearts, frantically praying and crying, beseeching God to save us (maybe for selfish reasons, who knows).
    LESSON? I believe we should live a purpose driven life and as much as is possible please God by living a life of faith.Yes, it wont be easy by our human strength but so that when found in situations like the Dana Crash (for example) we can say with confidence and a smile, like Apostle Paul, that we have fought the good fight and we have ran race.

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    Replies
    1. Sue, I wish I knew who you were...I especially like the last part of your comment, everything before it makes perfect sense too, of course, but 'say with confidence and a smile, like Apostle Paul....', I really like that.
      Thanks for commenting.

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