Dear Humans,
I write this letter not with a heart of joy; as the thought of my future leaves me panic-stricken and uncertain of where I am headed. I am concerned for this generation and the ones to come; which is why I have decided to escape from my terribly tight schedules to write to you. You would do yourself and me good to read, comprehend, assimilate and work towards working towards what you would deduce from this message.
I live in a land called Posterity. I cannot emphatically tell how far my world is from yours, but I could guess that it is just a click away (I don’t really know what that means). The space between us is not measured in distance, but in time; the time it takes a chef to prepare an omelette. I know you would be wondering what I look like, and probably what right I have to write you; I would bother less about that if I were you. I am living on this thin mysterious boundary that lies between the present and the future along with many others like me. We are as countless as the sand by the seashore; not yet born, of same age (age does not really exist here though, I said that so you could get the picture), and with the hope of leaving Posterity on the day called ‘Someday’. We all look alike and have no gender differences and no reason to discriminate against anyone since we are all the same. If you must know, we have no names for one another; we did not want to go through the stress of giving names; so we just come up with names as situation demands. But basically, everyone over here is called Anonymous. We understood that soon after we are born into your world, we would be christened as our parents deem fit. Therefore, we patiently look forward to the day of our birth, for this would be a dream come through for each of us.
We are the future – your future; and funny enough, you are our future.
Every living being was once a citizen of Posterity; but once you leave, you develop a terrible amnesia and you totally forget you were a part of it. On this note therefore, permit me to key you into how things go on around here.
Over here, we have neither days nor nights, it is never sunny or rainy or snowy; yet we are totally time conscious beings. We live out of season; we feed on hope – the hope of the future – of our future. Our world is laced with a blend of gold and topaz. We do not sleep nor work nor rest; we just sway with gay in the ray of the hope that keeps us going. We believe there is a God and for this reason He has being revealed to us. In fact, we talk with him on regular basis, thus giving us the privilege to commune with the angels and other heavenly creatures. This does not mean in any way that we reside in heaven, but let’s just say – we live close to it! We keep to our words, honesty and integrity is our watchword.
One day we never stop praying for is Someday, the day we would live Posterity to the human world. We never stop praying for that day; hoping that when it eventually comes, it would be a Good Day. In the sense that, the right one would be born into the right home to the right parents with the right hearts at the right time in the right place and under the right circumstances. We hope that our births would be the answers to the prayers of those we are begotten to; hoping that on that day it would peaceful and that the circumstances surrounding our births would be a cause for celebration. However, this wish is not always granted. It like a die had being cast and its outcome determines how we turn out to be, and not our prayers. This therefore is the more reason we in Posterity feed daily on Hope!
When humans conceive one of us or a pair or a trio or quad, as the case may be, leaves Posterity into the waiting womb; and when the pregnancies are aborted, we are casted back to Posterity, deeper than we had being before we left. We are picked at random; it’s like there are countless number of balls in a very large basket where one is picked at random with both eyes closed. Even as I write this now, it could be me who would be picked or some else, who knows? No one here knows whom its parents would be, neither does any of us know what country we would be born into nor what we would look like on earth; I guess this is determined by a greater force not even our would-be parents can manipulate. After a ‘pick’ is made, the rest of us align, waiting for the next pair to do the thing, hoping that when this happens, one or more of us would receive a call.
You must know something. When a foetus is aborted, it is thrust ferociously back into this mythical basket; and if you must know, it might take up to a thousand years or more before one aborted could stand the chance of being picked again – for this was my case!
On a gay day, while I was about my stereotypical routine, I suddenly felt my heart racing faster than a terrified mother gazelle running for its dear life from a ferocious hungry cheetah. Soon, I could no longer feel my legs on the ground. Next thing I knew, I was in the air and then I became unconscious. When I open my eyes, I discovered I was in an oval enclosure, it was dark and small, so different from what I was used to.
“Where am I? Where am I?” I kept on asking myself.
I could not get any answer; I was suddenly all alone, far away from my wonderful world – from Posterity. Just then, I heard a voice from the outside. From stories, I could tell it was a young woman, probably in here late teens; she was crying bitterly and caressing the box I was in repeatedly.
She kept on repeating these word amidst her sobs, “God, why me?”
“Why you what?” I was tempted to ask, but she could not hear me.
I relaxed for a while and took a deep breath; her sobs seemed like a background music as I disappeared in my thoughts.
“I have been taken! I have been taken!” I have prayed for this day all my life, and now my Someday has finally come. I wanted to jump, I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick and celebrate but I did not have any body parts for these actions; all I had was my mind and I was content with it.
Reality dawned on me when her sobs became louder, I could hear say these words, “Doctor no, I can’t be! I cannot be pregnant! What would become of me, of my future, my plans, school? No I can’t be”, then she cried some more.
“Yes you need to be! I would take care of you, I promise I would always be there for you when we finally meet”, I said trying to console my ‘mother’ who obviously could not hear me, but she would not be consoled, not even by her mother. I have always prayed that when this day comes, my ‘parents’ should be overjoyed, but my ‘mum’ wasn’t. “Where is my ‘dad’? he should be here with mama”, I thought in my utmost disappointment and confusion.
Soon, I heard an authoritative voice, it was masculine and I could tell it probably was her father – my ‘grandfather’. He said, “Let us go home Ayima”.
My mother’s name was Ayima, “What a beautiful name”, I thought, with a smile on my ‘face’.
***
I woke up the next day in posterity. I was aborted! Several armed men who robbed their home three weeks ago raped my ‘mother’. She did not want me and her parents also did not want a ‘bastard’ (that’s what they kept calling me) in their bloodline. I wish they gave me a chance, I wish they were patient enough to meet me; I would have brought joy to the home and put back the lost smiles on their faces. Ayima would be long dead before I would be reborn. I have mourned my untimely dismissal for too long, and now is the time to address serious issues. (Wipes tears from eyes).
You can call me Ephemeral!
I know what your world looks like; I know how you lead your lives – your deeds and misdeeds, your behaviours and misbehaviours and all what not. When I shared these with the others over here, it put fear in them; no one wanted to be part of your world anymore. But then we knew that we did not have a choice, it has being destined already. Therefore, in a bid to salvage your world – our future from drowning in a well, we decided to send you a message – this message. We hope that your egocentricity would allow you adjust.
Let’s talk a little about you and your world. You are humans and Someday we know we would be too. I was meticulous enough, in my little stay with you, to learn a bunch about.
I found out that humans are of diverse tongues and saw wrongs in different forms; you are of different tribe where even the elders gave and received bribes; and you are of different complexion with dissimilar compositions. In addition, I gathered that you belong to various religious sects and of separate regions; you carry-on conflicting ideas and ideals and care less, or not, about whose toes you step on. You have barbaric and inhumane behaviours and devious minds which you probably brag about without a conscience. Your cultural beliefs are different, and what one calls good morals another calls archaic. As a matter of fact, everything about humans is completely different. This therefore makes you disagree with one another so much that at the slightest provocation, you opt for violence.
You fight. Why should a people so alike fight? Worst of all, you fight over irrelevant issues. You manufacture weapons of mass destruction and store them up in your arsenals like tubers yams hanging in a wealthy farmer’s barn. You brag about how sophisticated your arsenals are; and with this, you instil a terrible fear on those who are seemingly weaker than you. The music, movies and literatures you promote promotes violence and teaches one new and excellent ways to commit crimes, and those that do not directly promote violence would definitely be bloody, erotic and filled with immoral scenes so much that one finds it hard to learn anything meaningful from viewing them.
The younger generation are at the verge of losing all sense of moral stability to the monster of “let them be, it doesn’t matter”. The heart breaking news is that you cheer your little daughter up when she puts up an erotic dance step which she got from a so called rated 18 hip-hop music video on BET. You smile when Junior acts like the tough bad guy in a Dwayne Johnson’s movie he saw at lights-out hours. Sometimes I ask myself what the fate Posterity is if the children are already getting a fill of corruption.
You give rounds of applause to evil acts and with all you have you shun good deeds. An honest person is referred to as a Jew Guy; in other words, Stupid. In the Law Court, cases are judged in the favour of the man with the heavier pocket, and sadly, impecunious men are thrown into a quadrangle of gnashing of teeth. Your leaders only think of what they can get from the national treasury – everyone is looking for a chunk or piece of the national cake; no one thinks of what can be added to the system to further aid growth and development.
I hope this mirror is getting clearer.
I found out that you attach utmost value on frivolities than you do on priorities. How can millions of cash be handed to the winner of a regional beauty pageant show while less value is placed on virtuous inner-beautiful women, let alone academically excellent and scientifically innovative young scholars?
We call you The Abusers! Guess why? It is simple; you abuse everything! You abuse one another, you abuse drugs, you abuse opportunities, you abuse privileges, you abuse God, you abuse your leaders, you abuse the world at large, and you even abuse your own selves! It is funny.
Here in Posterity, love and respect is the order of the day, and this is why we think you humans are strange beings living strange lives in a strange world. Your heart thinks a thing, your mouth spits another and you end up doing something totally different from what you had earlier thought and professed – what a people! You cheat with ease and no feeling of guilt, and you tell lies whilst standing on a stack of various Holy Books, swearing with the earth and sky and in the name of every god, there is.
You fight when you should not and think you are smart, and in cases you cannot throw punches, you throw curses. You plot evil and intelligently execute them like the sharp guys you claim you are.
You love giving names and you have devised new names to paint black white; you call it white lie, harmless hate, white-collar crime, mercy killing, pity sex and the host of other sweet names that makes crime something to look forward to doing. You preach, “Oh bless the Lord” but your actions is at variance with your sermons. An average person is seeking to see the speck in others eyes, paying less concern on the log that lies in their eyes. Role models mould roles that if followed would be tantamount to dining with the devil – it even seem like dining with the devil is no longer a big deal since you do say, ‘when you want to dine with the devil, use a long spoon’. I wonder what took you to the devils table if you have not signed a pact with him already.
***
Here is a quick question for you: What HOPE is there for Posterity to feed on if the little we know about you already sounds cataclysmic?
You allow region and religion get in the way of what would have being a beautiful world. You allow tribes and tongues determine how you operate and relate with your fellows; is that not a sign of cowardice? Can you not see how cheap and weak you have become? Worst still, it is sickening to note that you even pride in these. You are swallowed up in your self-obsessive lives that you have failed to understand how much fun it would be if peace is the order on the menu. “Why so much differences?” I keep wondering.
Consequently, if you continue like this, Posterity would have no place to call home in the nearest future. In case you might have forgotten, be reminded that you were once of Posterity!
A quick question, “If those that were in your world while you were still in Posterity had destroyed it before you got there, where would you have clung unto as Home today?” On the other hand, could all your mischievous acts be a form of your personal vendetta on us because those who were on earth before you probably did not give you a good platform to build on? I really do not get it! By the way, if you did not meet the world in a good shape you ought to, before you leave, work with diligence towards its transformation process; so that those who would come after you would have no choice but to acknowledge your forever-inscribed pseudonyms on the bricks [not even sands] of time.
Finally folks, here are my pieces of advice.
- Shun evil. Evil would not pay you; rather you pay for it and its consequences and at the long run, it would surely come asking for your head.
- Embrace Good. Oh my God, you would be extremely glad you did!
- Preach peace and live by its precepts. For the apothegms of peace conveys the ingredients for growth and development.
- Love others with all your heart – love them as you love yourself; you would never know how transformed you could be when you give in to giving out sincere love.
- Love God! Do not just preach of Him, live by Him! He is the source of it all (believe it or not). Trust me, you cannot really love others if His love is not in you.
- Do not be too quick to judge; do not be in a haste to war – at the end of a war, you are left shagged out, counting your losses and probably wishing you never, in the first place, went into battle.
- Place utmost priority on integrity, diligence, intellects, dexterity, intelligence and innovative ideas – the world you stand on now is a product of these. Encourage the young lads, who ply this route, you would be glad you did.
- Be content; if you cannot be, work harder! Crime pays but for a little while; it leaves the robbed cracked and the robber crashed!
- What good would it do you to hate on others or take another’s life? What star would it add to your crown (if you even have any) when you quench your brother’s lamp?
- Watch your children (our elder siblings) closely. Do not be carried away by your quest for wealth at the detriment of your progenies. Take note of what they ingest, lest they digest daisy cutters and explode right before your very own eyes.
- Place utmost priority on building strong united families; this is a small unit that impacts the society on a broad scale. Husband love your wife – wife cherish your husband; no matter what the issue is, you can fix it. Divorce does not always solve the puzzle. Love your children – children reciprocate this affection as well; daddy must not always surprise you, you can return this gesture once in a while.
- Technology was meant for man, not the other way round. Use things and love people, not the other way round. Drive your emotions, not the other way round.
- Control yourself because if you do not, others would do it for you; and trust me, it would not be funny at all.
- Do not try your best in making the world a better place, do your best. Plant trees. Live with the consciousness that man does not exist alone, there’s something called The Ecosystem. As little or huge other species of life might be, live with their interest in mind. Destroying your world could be likened to the proverbial child who bites the breast it suckles on.
- A bad thought is a step towards a wrong action. Therefore, purify your minds; it all begins in the mind. A reshaped mentality would do!
I would end on this note, MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR YOURSELF AND A PLACE TO LOOK FORWARD TO FOR POSTERITY. Thanks in earnest anticipation.
Yours,
EPHEMERAL
(On behalf of Posterity)
–JOHNWILLIAMS XPLOITZ