Pandemic pushed the world to isolation, social distance and lockdown in homes. This period, in which we have frozen our social relations and restricted our mobility, had individual and social effects. Our perception of space and time has changed. Our questions and problems about the universe, nature and existence have diversified or deepened. Perhaps it is time to ask questions to life like why and how right after the days when the reality of death shook the world.
In order to get answers with traces of different beliefs, different cultures and social structures, we asked our friends from different parts of the world to these questions: what do you live for? What connects you to life as you start your day each morning? Do you have a dream? Do you think the pandemic affected the answers to these questions and your perspective on life?
The second contributor of our serie is from Gana, Kelvin Acheampong.
Like chasing after the wind
Although we must all have—especially in these uncertain times—asked ourselves the questions “What is life?”, “Why am I here?”, “What am I living for?”, “Where do I go from here?” (or variations of it), it is interesting to note that these questions are neither peculiar to us nor our generation.
Very long ago, a king called Solomon, who embarked on a quest to decipher the actual meaning of life, arrived at a bleak conclusion: everything is meaningless—like chasing after the wind—and there is nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
But important among his discoveries is a lesson I have coveted: go easy on life. With all the rush, numerous opportunities and busy-ness of our world, this seems a counterintuitive advice. To have access to the internet, for example, is to have at one’s behest incalculable possibilities un-thought of by past generations. I think that Covid 19 has taught me very practically that the things that really matter in life are few. What have we been busy all this while for?
So to our king’s last words: “Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of wo/man.”
Kelvin Acheampong, Gana
