Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
by Jade Gibbons
Many enquiries into life conclude that life is meaningless as it is transient and serendipitous. Even King Solomon concluded that life is a ‘vanity’ and the exercise of it is ‘chasing after the wind.’ However, what is meaning? The Oxford Dictionary defines meaning as “a sense of purpose.”
If purpose is delimited as “the reason for which something is done or exists”, then the conclusion articulated in our opening statement is incorrect and insufficient.
There has never been and will never be anything that is nothing. Its sheer existence as something makes it a thing and therefore it cannot be no thing. These are diametrically opposed concepts and cannot be reconciled or merged. Similar to how light cannot be dark, and heat cannot be cold, a thing cannot be no thing.
In a 2016 article for the National Review, Douglas Murray states that “Every age preceding ours sanctioned acts that we find morally stupefying”. The article is titled Grim Reaper M.D. and addresses what Murray considers to be the lunacy of euthanasia.
He highlights how allowing for cancer and dementia patients to be euthanized has led Belgium, Holland and by extension humanity as a whole, down a slippery slope. I think this slope leads into an abyss that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
To the advocates of euthanasia who will say that I am being hyperbolic by comparing their desire to ease someone’s end of life suffering with the Nazis’ desire to exterminate the mentally ill and disabled, I urge you to go and read the international reports about physically healthy young persons who have been euthanized because they were suffering with depression. As Murray highlights, allowing the elderly to be euthanized because they are infirmed emboldens the youth to say ‘me too’.
With this in mind, we must evaluate the wind as it is our metaphor for life. By definition, wind is the perceptible natural movement of the air. Air is the invisible mixture of gases – specifically nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, krypton, hydrogen, xenon, and others – surrounding the earth. All of these are identifiable compounds with their own unique chemical composition.
We do not notice air’s presence unless it becomes wind and delights us by cooling our bodies on a hot day or irritates us by blowing our hair in our faces.
We do, however, notice its absence. In this, a profound and fundamental truth – if you want your life to have meaning, you must act. The choice is yours whether you will act positively or negatively.
In weighing your action options, what should not be given consideration is existential inaction. To put it plainly, do not kill yourself and do not encourage or advocate for others to kill themselves. It is easy to hold something that is smaller than you.
It is very difficult to hold something that is bigger than you. And herein lies the quandary that mankind experiences when trying to comprehend life.
Life is not meaningless, but its meaning is difficult to grab hold of.
Similar to how it is impossible to capture the wind with your bare hands.
Last year June, when I first started writing articles for this newspaper, extracts from my 2014 Creative Writing dissertation were published in a four-part series titled Windrush: From Whence They Came.
The series revolved around the life of a Barbadian couple who migrated to England. What readers probably did not know was that they were reading creative non-fiction. That is to say, the stories and the characters in the series, for the most part, are real. Most of whom are still alive today.
Any embellishments in the narrative are due to the fact that the female character, Gwen, has dementia and was unable to give her side of the story.
Therefore, I had to fill in the blanks. I mention this because I think the stories, in and of themselves, prove that Gwen’s life still has value.
Before dementia robbed Gwen of her ability to speak, she would often say, “Don’t forget me.” I found this highly ironic, given the fact that she was the one suffering with dementia. Then one day she said, “Sometimes you meet people, you don’t know them, but you just love them anyhow. Don’t forget me.” Then I understood that Gwen’s ‘don’t forget me’-s were a command to remember her value even after the disease debilitated her mind and her body. Gwen is not the person she once was because of dementia. But she still is valuable. Gwen’s husband David recently made the comment that, “Love that lasts when youth has faded, bends with age but never dies.”
Jade Gibbons is an arts and business graduate with a keen interest in social issues and film-making.
