Suffering and misfortune are as part of life as the air we breathe. The late Chinua Achebe, the great Nigerian writer, captured this fact superbly in a quote from his book “Arrow of God”:
“When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.”
In this quote, part of a speech by the character Moses to the elders of the town of Umuaro, he compared the folly of not accepting the fact that the white man in the then colonized Nigeria had all the power to not accepting the inevitability of suffering in life.
Just like the European showed up on the African shore with his own stool and took over, regardless of the fact that the latter did not invite the former, so does misfortune sometimes intrude into our lives without an invite and takes over.
I look at the misery imposed on the people in Houston and other parts of southern Texas, Sierra Leone and Mumbai and cannot but think of how suffering walks around with its own stool.
So if we humans hate to suffer, why do we do things or make decisions that invite misfortune into out lives? I’ve always wondered about this and somehow, the miserable images on TV in the last few days have amplified this deliberation.
All that musing brought to mind a verse from a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.
The story of the mariner in the poem contrasts greatly with the story of the people in Houston – he brought his suffering upon himself, the people of Houston did not. However, in both instances, water played a great role in the nightmare that ensued.
So a brief synopsis of the poem – a mariner, his crew and their ship are headed on a voyage. A storm drives them towards the Antarctic. Lost, they got caught in ice. Suddenly, an albatross appears and with it a wind that leads them out of the icy debacle. All is well as they follow the albatross but then the mariner shoots the bird with his crossbow and kills it. Following that, it was as if the gods and spirits had conspired to punish them. The very wind that seemed to have lead them out of the ice of the Antarctic lead them into uncharted tropical waters. Lost, all of a sudden the wind stopped. The ship just sat in these unknown waters, immobile. All his men blamed the mariner for their misfortune. It was in these dire circumstances that Coleridge wrote these lines:
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
Water, water everywhere indeed!
I’m sure the people of Houston look out and say that to themselves and wonder why such misfortune was visited upon them. Unlike the mariner in Coleridge’s poem, they never shot an albatross!
Well, like Achebe wrote, suffering walks around with his own stool. He imposes himself even if you do not want him!
Going back to the poem, the mariner is forced by the death of his crew and him being alone with the corpses on that lonely immobile ship to learn to appreciate life and realize how senseless the killing of the albatross was. From the misery, he grew. He found the proverbial silver lining.
So, is that why suffering marches around with his stool? To force us to learn? Are those who make mistakes and dare misfortune the ones who are more apt to learn faster? Is it that the majority of us fail to grow, so suffering has to knock on that door and induce misery so we can learn? Is suffering really the only way to sometimes learn the harsh lessons of life?
Is that why in both scenarios water seems to be the common denominator?
You see, water is life but in the case of Houston, Sierra Leone and Mumbai, it has became the killer! How can life turn on itself? How can life connive with suffering? Could it be that life itself wants us to grow? That life itself thinks the only way for us to develop and be greater is through misfortune? Water…it calls to mind the Christian custom of baptism, rebirth renewal…
Water, water everywhere!
Maybe, when we open that door and suffering is out there, we should gladly invite him in. We should tell him:
“As miserable as you look, I know there is a silver lining in you. I am going to find it so set that stool in the corner and sit down.”
In all this water and suffering, I hope Houston and the rest of Texas, Sierra Leone and Mumbai find the silver lining.