Let us take a pause this moment and for a while put
the right side of our brain at work. I want you take a walk with me. I want you
to see what I see. I want you to feel what I feel. I want you to be present
with me.
Take a deep breath...
Now I want you to see the ocean; you’re at the center of the ocean. Walking atop the water like a god, gravity has no power
over you. All around you, no matter how far you stretch, all of it is an
endless picture of blue—an endless valley of water. Depthless. Pure. Perfect. All
you feel is tranquility; but you also feel the pain. You’re connected to every
single life in the ocean, and their joy is your joy and their pain your pain:
you’re part of the ocean—you are one. But the pain does not matter because you
have within your reach the power to change things, to shape things for the
better. You have a choice though: to help or not to help. But despite the
stress and no matter the amount of pressure your choice is always to help. So
even if the pain will always return—you always return peace and tranquility in
its place. All life depends on you. You are their healer. Their protector.
Their road to salvation. This is a job, and in this job you’re not the first,
there were others before you. And each time their time was up, they’d run
across the ocean to the beach—completely full of beautiful sparkly sands—a
beach without an end. Soon your time runs out. You’re no longer the god walking
on the ocean, now you’re the Flash. You’re running. Running faster than light.
Running across endless water. You can feel the wind against your chest.
Everything is still. Only the sound of your beating heart can be heard. Then
it’s over only too soon. There’s no more water. You’ve reached the beach where
your powers don’t work anymore, and you have to walk the rest of the way—an
eternity of sand. But before you start, you take a look at the beach, and all
you can see is the past: the footprints of the gods who came before you—the gods
of the arena.
Poetic, wasn’t it?
Take a deep breath...
Life I believe is a string of choices leading to a
destination which is not at first clear until usually when it’s too late to
affect it in a magnitude that would change its direction without scaring it.
That being said, I know you’re probably wondering
why I asked you to sail with me to a land in my mind, a land only the nerve
cells in our brain can reach. The answer to that question is obvious. Like the
story, I wanted you to realise afresh that life is like a beach and every step
we take leaves a footprint in time. Every of our actions no matter our minute
is recorded in time. It compounds universally into a single
footprint--humanity. Like a map, even the smallest of markings affect—they
cause a shift in the direction of fate. Each day new states and countries are
drawn in this great map, roads and bridges are constructed in its ever evolving
verse. The artist are us, and the pencil with which we draw are our actions—the
choices we make every single moment in time. Every single until of time we add
to its complexity; but we were not the first to draw, our choices were not the
first to be recorded. There were others before us. And although we cannot count
all of them, there are few that can be counted. Few whose actions shaped the Great
Map and still shapes it; few whose actions still affect our decisions today.
Those few are, the Gods of the Arena--the arena, being Earth or in this case,
the Beach.
My aim is for us to reminisce; to take a little stroll
down memory lane. Like the god who gazed at the footprints of those who came
before him when he was about to start is long journey across that beach, let us
take a few flips at the pages of history and remember those names that are more
popular than Beyoncé; those names are still more revered and more powerful than
Barrack Obama or USA. Let us examine
their actions and ask ourselves some questions, that I hope we cause a soul
reflection, that if not too late will change our life’s direction.
Jesus
Christ
Born between 8BC and 4BC and died around 29AD, the
name Jesus Christ is not only the most popular name in the planet, but the most
revered both in history and the present time.
There’s no single person in the planet who doesn’t
know this man’s story. Born in a time of great political instability and
religious diversity, Jesus Christ set out to heal the past and to show the
people a new path to righteousness. A path without the brutality of the Old
Testament—the laws Moses established nearly three thousand years before he was
born. Where Moses had said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he
preached forgiveness and acceptance. He believed that there was strength in
perceived ‘weakness’, and grace in self-control. But his story was not long. At
the age of thirty three, Christ died, but not before he left a group of
followers which people began to call, Christians, after his death.
His life was so inspiring that even thousands of
years after his death people still weep publicly when they here this beautiful
story. So devoted where his followers to his doctrines that when the Romans
attempted to change it, they laid down their lives happily for the gospel. In
fact, the attempt on diversifying his gospel spearheaded the Dark Ages: a time
of great upheaval, when the powers of the state and the church were merged
together. A time when the word of the Pope was final on earth, and no King dared
to go against it. It is estimated that during the period of sixteen centuries
the Roman Catholic Church crucified and and killed in many horrible ways at
least 50 million Bible believing Christians, including popular once like Jan
Hus (www.end-times-prophecy.org).
This man’s life—one man’s life has shaped the course of history for the past
two thousand years.
Sir
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
One of the marvels of the universe, Sir Isaac Newton
proposed some of the laws that govern space travel and aerodynamics two
centuries before they were invented. A dreamer by every means, this man
completely shaped the course of physics and mathematics and in general, science,
for almost three hundred years until the advent of Professor Albert Einstein.
And it so happens that an entire part of science is named after him—Newtonian
Mechanics.
His unparalleled insight into the mathematical
nature of the universe led him to his invention of an entire branch of
mathematics called Calculus. He established the modern laws of Optics—the study
of light, and built the first Reflecting Telescope. He was also the first to
identify the force of gravity and propose the Universal Law of Gravitation. In
fact almost all of Classical Mechanics is based on his principle.
Without him most of the inventions we see today
would not be possible as most of them are based on his principles and
inventions. He is widely considered as one of the most important scientist of
all time, and in my opinion he was the greatest of them all, perhaps only
surpassed by Albert Einstein. This man’s life—one man’s life has shaped the
Great Map, and is still shaping it for the past four hundred years.
Socrates
In the year 399BC a man stood in the midst of the
Athenian court—then one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world then. This
man was not priest or a Courtsman; nor was he of royal blood or any worldly
riches. He was a man of Truth and Justice—a man who preferred moral wealth or
the wealth of the mind more than possessions of this world and taught so to
others—including the old and the young. He was not a youth when he gained
popularity, he was rather an elderly man with a nice taste for humour; but not
to forget, his journey had started since he was youth.
Accused of heresy, impiety, and moral corruption of
the youths of Athens, Socrates was tried, convicted and sentenced to death at
Athens. Before he died he said, “Virtue springs not from possessions, but from
Virtue springs possessions and all other human blessings...” he also said, “no
evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.” He gave his life
for Truth and Justice, and over two millennia later, this man has influenced
more people than we can count. Two thousand years later he has affected the
course of the Great Map in philosophy more than any man in history.
What’s the point of all this?
Like I said before, the point is for us to take a
pause, calm down for a while and take another look at life and a life with meaning.
Because I assure you there is a difference between living a life and living a life of meaning.
You may wonder why I chose those three individuals
out of the few dozens of people that affected history. The reason is because,
they affected the Great Map more than anybody that came before them or after
them, and they belong to the three main categories of life: Religion, Science,
and Arts.
You see dear reader, life is much more than living,
eating, procreating, and just having fun. Life has meaning. Like I said in my
previous article—Never Give Up- Hold Onto That Dream, all of us have within us
infinite potential. Potential to shaping the world even thousands of years
after we are dead. Potential to take humanity to the promise land. But most of
the times we a wearied and battered by the trials of life, so instead of living
a life of meaning we choose everyday just to live life. So my aim today is to
inspire you with the life of these heroes, though long dead, but whose legacies
still affect our lives today. Those heroes that preferred rather to die for
what they believed in than renounce their faith.
My aim is not to preach religion, science or arts;
my goal rather is to focus our minds’ eye on the footprints on the sands of
time. Jesus, Newton and Socrates, truly revolutionised the world. Without them,
the world as we know it would not be possible. It would not exist. Living only
thirty three years in life, just at the prime of his youth when he died, Jesus
has affected more lives in history than every man put together in history in
only two millennia. Is it Socrates? The level of impact he has had in the last
two thousand years can hardly be quantified. Or is it Newton? Just imagine the
world without Calculus, what would it be like?
These three men didn’t just live their lives, they lived a life of meaning. They put
their potential to full use. They not only did that, when the time came they
gave up their lives for what they believed in. So that today we could have
airplanes and cars, democracy and moral values such as: truth, justice,
forgiveness etc. They were like the god I described at the beginning of the
article that stood atop the ocean, whose shoulders where placed the
responsibility of every life in the ocean. Who despite the stress, trials and
oppositions they faced like that god in the story they chose to continuously
apply their potential to the positive benefit of posterity, rather than allow
themselves to wallow in self-pity and beggary. Remember: they chose.
Dear reader, you have a choice today. Put that
infinite potential within you to use or wallow in whatever condition you are in
today. You have an opportunity—a choice to turn your life story into pages that
would later be read as history by posterity, or let it be forgotten totally.
Since you were born, your parents told you awesome stories about these people
who changed the course of time, stories that inspired you, and you dreamt
wildly. But as you grew up and faced the harsh conditions of life, your passion
began to wane and you let yourself wallow in helplessness and excuses. Well,
today is another chance for you. Socrates died for a better world, Jesus died
for a better world, and Newton spent his whole life inventing the principles
that today makes life much easier. They never gave up, they never wallowed,
they never faltered—not once. They became the gods that men call upon today,
they became the gods that shapes the social, moral, political, and cultural
structure of the planet today. They became the gods of the arena—men that
affected the course of time—of history, in such magnitude that the fate of the
planet would be indescribable without them. Men whose names are called more
times in a day than any man that currently lives. Men we read in books, men
whose life’s works we study in schools. Recent men like: Albert Einstein,
Nelson Mandela and Rev Martin Luther King Jr.; all men who lived and died for
what they believed. Men who stood up and spoke when many were afraid and
cowering. Who despite threat on their lives and family and the allure of
corruption and material lust in the society held on to Truth and Justice and
put their potential at work. Like Martin Luther the German monk once said:
“Then let them take our life, goods, honour, children, wife. We would let all
go. They shall not conquer so.”
You too can be like them. Two thousand years from
now it could be your name on the chalk board, two thousand years from now it
could be your life’s work people go to higher institutions to get a decree on. Two
thousand years from now it could be your story inspiring the lives of billions
across the planet. You have within your power all it takes to shape the course
of history for the better, to make the future of planet earth brighter. You can
become the next God of the Arena.
Like that god today, you’re about to start that long
journey across the beach, and we have taken a look at some of the footprints of
the gods who came before you, so I guess the only question left is:
What would you do?
