Have you found something worth dying for?

Every person should live with an abiding aim, which would keep him or her pursuing life with zeal and determination. In such a case, that enlightened soul would increasingly find each new day unfolding with purpose and with promise.

Living with such an inclination renders life worthwhile; more so than it would be, if one neglects the necessity to abide by the principle of purposeful living. Incompliant to purpose, a man becomes half committed to living, and goes through life bearing his existence like a burden.

Each day, he rises with unspecified aims that cloud his judgment sending him on various unproductive paths, until at last he discovers that the years have passed, and he has little to show for his time on earth, except possibly children whom he may hardly know and whom may or may not live their lives with the same aimlessness as he, having eaten the grapes, which he planted unwittingly due to his lack of purpose.

To this man, we say that living requires effort; as much effort as it takes to plant a garden in a wild field; only, in this case the garden is our mind. It must be tilled constantly, with care to eradicate useless thoughts and wasteful habits.

We must plant dreams as seeds within the garden of our mind, seeds which are of the right kind, and they must be watered and tended for as long as it takes them to germinate and grow into productive trees, which may bear fruits according to their kind for a hundred years or more.

In fact, it is this harvest of good habits, thrift, and righteousness, which will sustain us in the latter years when we have become incapacitated by time.

Because we have only one life, as far as we know, we ought to ensure that we invest it wisely, ever mindful of the need to dream of things beyond our immediate grasp. This dreaming must take into account that life is unfair, and that we may not be as talented, as wealthy, as fortunate, or even a member of the race which may be in vogue at the time of our brief sojourn on this earth, for such things are always in flux. We must also be mindful that the gods are capricious, granting arbitrary gifts. They give great intellects to humans with little concern of their gender, origin or race.

Consequently, each man or woman possesses abilities, which are randomly distributed. And it is this randomness, which allows each of us a chance of greatness. Yet in spite of how great or small our minds may be, we are nevertheless required to do our best in order to have a worthwhile existence.

Those who have found their purpose understand the art of living. They know and accept the responsibility of cultivating their mind beyond the base needs of impulse, or greed. Brick by brick, they build daily an edifice, which may endure.

They form concepts and theories that may become the salvation for millions, years after they have passed on. The ancient Africans said that to call a man’s name means that he lives on. Thus, in their way of understanding existence, Ramses is immortal, for we proclaim his name.

How is it with us? Have we found our purpose? Do we daily pursue our goals in spite of how far away they seem to be? I am always mindful of appearing foolhardy whenever I tell students or other people that there lies within us a realistic capability to change the world.

My pause is due to the fact that a million other men doubt this ability. They, like sheep, flock in anesthetised herds, conforming to the easy path, and never taking risks in order to achieve greatness. But Martin Luther King Jr. once said:

“There are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

It is my steadfast desire to instill within us the need to find that eternally true thing for which we are prepared to die, our country needs such a commitment from us.

The writer is the CEO of Grand Africa Literary Initiative Ltd