Happenings in the United States of America these past four years have taught us and the world some lessons, or better said, have reinforced some truths, universal, eternal truths. By the way, more drama may yet unfold between now and January 20, 2021, America’s Inauguration. We do not know how things would pan out in the next 70 days. I am not a soothsayer or have the gift of clairevoyance but whatever it may be, for ill or good, America and the world shall profit from the experience.
The first truth is that no human being is imbued with the capacity/gift to be able to ‘see’, overlook everything that influences our lives to be able to make an accurate prediction about the trajectory of our life in the world. Therefore, we should ignore all self-appointed, self-professed, intellectual-oriented, faith-based seers of whatever hue from professors to clergymen, including professional seers that I hear abound in Europe and America, advertising their trade, claiming to know what tomorrow holds in store for people that consult them.
And I learnt that quite a number of people do see these people, all classes. Because of the uncertain times in which we live, people are anxious about whaBut what is the objective of our wanting to know what tomorrow holds in store for us? Suppose we are told by a seer that tomorrow has some goodies for us, then we are bound to go about that day with some overconfidence in expectation that something good shall happen; and if something bad is professed for us, we live in fear of that day, always looking across our shoulders in trepidation. That is not how to go about life (in over-confidence or fear) rather, we should live in the present (not dreaming of the future or lamenting over the past) with our feet on the ground, calmly confronting everything that we meet on any day, good or bad, fully experiencing them in order to be able to learn the lessons therein, trusting in the Justice of the Lord. It is absolutely unnecessary to want to know what tomorrow bringeth. We need not worry about it. What aforementioned persons engage in is patchwork.
Thus those that indulge in foretelling outcome of the US elections generally got it wrong. The few that got it right only did so by chance. On the average, a landslide win was predicted for Joe Biden which meant that we would know the result on Tuesday night, latest wee hours of Wednesday or when some 30 of the 50 state results were called. Alas, the election remained ‘inconclusive’ for days, it went to the wire with both running neck-to-neck in the remaining five states; and it was not until Saturday morning, four days later, that a winner emerged, the first time that Americans and the world have to wait for days for the winner of America’s presidential election to be declared. Even as I write this piece, results from three states in America are yet to be confirmed. None of the ‘seers’ saw this scenario beforehand. Lesson: Ignore forecasters, seers et al, just do your own part and leave the rest to the Will of GOD. Truth number two. There are two contrasting world views today, each with their followership. These can generally be classed as evil and good concepts, right and wrong manifesting in every profession, organization, household, community, country, leading to schisms, divisions right down the middle with the resultant oppositions, feuds, antagonisms. This is evident everywhere in every endeavour. So, in every profession there will always be people who tread the wrong paths – they are called quacks. Even in the celebration of Biden’s win there were those that celebrated the right, decent way and those that jubilated the wrong, inappropriate manner, mocking the loser. Note that I am not judging individuals, parties, organizations, etc. I am only referring to broad concepts behind which individual human beings line up and each of the two concepts have many characteristics associated with it while a person linked to any one of them may change to the other with time. Thus, it should not be surprising that when someone makes a statement bordering on hatred there will always be commentators that support it, even reinforcing it while some others will call for caution. There will always be persons that support evil characteristics with its various manifestations. They are in large numbers.
Because of our dense physical body that cloaks the human spirit, soul within, both evil- minded and good-minded people are here in this planet earth. This is in contrast to what obtains in the beyond where upon casting off the physical body at death, the human spirit is led to places where its kinds dwell – those with hate characteristics find themselves in place filled with people with hatred; murderers find themselves among murderers, those consumed with envy with similar people, good natured people in environment where people of such nature reside, and so on and so forth.
Thus even though Donald Trump spewed hatred and was adept at mocking people, even the vulnerable, many people do not find this offensive while many others consider it repulsive. That he garnered some 70 million votes is a testament to this. In every country there are good and bad persons, the good or evil is not exclusive to white or coloured persons. And although, the world appears to be suffused with evil tendencies and their human followings, it never lasts.
Indeed, the path of those that nest in it one way or other is similar – they grow wings, blossom but at the peak of their authority, when they think they are on top of the world, that nothing can happen to them, they are suddenly thrust down from their high horse to ground zero. From Napoleon to Hitler it was the same trajectory. Trump was very confident he would win with his strategy of demonization, showed little kindness while Biden preached the gospel of unity and showed empathy. At first as the results trickled in, Trump was in the lead in the decisive electoral college votes, he continued to lead as he took the first swing state after another; people sympathetic to Biden’s cause and his supporters began to lose hope; Trump and his supporters began to dream of reelection; then Biden started catching up, suddenly caught up and suddenly overtook Trump and won. Lesson: The mill of Justice grinds slowly but surely.
If anybody can successfully persuade President Trump to abandon his antagonistic post election plans and accept the fait accompli it shall be either his wife or daughter – the women in his life. Truth number three. Women are imbued by GOD with an inherent, unseen power that makes them silent leaders. They can use this special power from the Almighty for good or evil, by using it rightly to lead the man and a nation upwards for ascent or downwards to perdition. The world calls it feminine charm. You may recall the story of a would be assassin of a former US president. This man said in a book written by him that watching the then president in a crowd he put his hand in his pocket, was pulling out the gun to aim at the former president when someone held his hand, he turned round to see who it was and saw a woman of small stature. And as his eyes met those of the woman even before she spoke those soft words, ‘are you alright’, her gentle gaze melted his heart and made him abandon his evil mission to kill the erstwhile American president. That is ‘feminine charm’ put to good use. We may yet learn more universal truths from America between now and next year as the world watches.
Ikeano, a journalist, writes from Lafia
