SO, here we are again – a brand new year at our disposal. What are we going to do with it? If I were to concoct an analogy, it would be like being given a super-duper computer that enables one to delve into the fountain of knowledge, communicate with the world and do many other wonderful things with a click of the mouse (heck, come to think of it, most of us possess such a gadget already). The question is, with such power at our fingertips, what are we going to use it for?
One instinctive reaction as far as the gift of time is concerned would be to make the famed New Year’s resolutions. This is confirmed by the number of such postings on the social networks. The one by a friend from Singapore typifies it all. It reads, “Be your best, go for greatness, do it now!”
Of course, there are the few realists, some would say cynics, who, mindful that most, if not all, of our good intentions of the past year have fallen by the wayside, would make ironical remarks like, “One resolution I want to make for the New Year is not to make any resolution.”
But hope springs eternal and the ‘go for it’ brigade wins the day. And the world is never short of motivational sagely advice like, ‘never give up’, ‘be single-minded’, ‘eat, breathe, dream your goals’, and other such likes to egg us on.
There are hundreds of motivational books lining the shelves of bookshops and thousands of inspiring quotes floating about in the cyber sphere urging us to have the magnificent obsession vis-a-vis our goals. In light of this, we can be forgiven if we were to face the New Year focusing myopically on personal success.
It takes a poignant story to jolt us out of this blinkered approach to life. One such story is that of David Sharp.
In 2006, Sharp, an English mountaineer, was clearly in physical trouble near the summit of Mount Everest.
There were 40 climbers who noticed his obvious need but passed him that day.
They were too focused on their personal goal of reaching the summit. David Sharp died on Mount Everest because none of the other climbers were willing to put their personal goal on hold to help him.
As one looks forward to the New Year, naturally one also casts a backward glance at the year that has just passed.
Apparently it is a practice in some cultures to put a white pebble in a jar to signify the
good things that happened in the year and a black pebble for the bad.
If we were to follow suit for summing up the world in 2011, judging from media reports, I think there would be more black pebbles than white in our jar. Some would be the blackest of black.
These are for when men have invoked the name of their Creator to carry out murderous attacks on their fellow men.
Last month alone, there were two horrendous crimes committed ostensibly in the name of God. One was the suicide bombing of a holy shrine in Afghanistan killing over 50 people. The rub was that the perpetrators were members of a different sect of the same religion.
Then the infamy of infamies, on Christmas Day itself a few churches in Nigeria were blasted resulting in scores of deaths.
The group that claimed responsibility for the heinous crime purported to belong to a religious sect working to keep its community pure and ‘untainted’ by outside culture.
Tellingly, they called themselves Boko Haram, which means ‘Western education is sin’.
These may be incidents that happened in far away places but it is disturbing to note that amongst our midst are people who are afflicted by the same paranoia and misguided belief that they serve their ‘God’ best through the chastisement of other religions.
This seed of intolerance, if unchecked, might grow into full-fledged belligerence and aggression not only towards people of different creeds but also to those of their own congregation who may not agree with the bigots f narrow-minded interpretation of their religion.
The teachings of the divine are expressed through many cultures and enshrined in the many great tomes containing hundreds of thousands of words.
For all the voluminous rendering, the divine edicts can be simply summarised into two inseparable sentences. Love God. Love thy neighbour.
While prayers and worship are an expression of love for our Creator, so too is our treatment of other beings. The love of God is manifested through our love for His other creation.
So on this first day of a new year, let me offer everyone this:
Here’s to 2012.
May we pursue our goals without compromising our principles,
live our belief without losing our humanity,
seek happiness without denying others theirs.