Events and personal experiences which we encounter daily convey more meanings than the explanations that we generally attach to them. A number of people who look quite healthy, normal and highly esteemed in society often have some illnesses and other burdens which are asymptomatic; meaning that the inside rarely shows on the outside. Events occur which can be quite inexplicable, just as individuals can have encounters which can be perplexing. Truly, there is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face.
We are being instructed and educated daily by the numerous events and personal experiences which we encounter. But obtuse humanity attaches little or no deeper significance to symbiotic nature of the subtle messages of events and experiences. We do not need prophets to tell us that we pay debts and make atonements daily without knowing that we are doing so. Atonement is defined as something you do to show that you are sorry for having done something wrong. Penance is a more familiar word.
Obviously, no one is free from some wrong doing of different nature and degrees, despite superficial sanctimony. Happily, everyone is endowed with the means of recognizing when and where we err, as well as an inner longing to atone for such errors.
Left alone, every man is a judge for himself, even though some people are more recalcitrant than others. Events and experiences play the roles of forcing every one to be awake and learn lessons daily.
Hard and difficult times which everybody is passing through currently, a situation which is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, provide numerous opportunities for positive changes to take place.
Left alone, human beings have the tendency and proclivity to remain docile and avoid costs, but cherish the easy comfort of lethargy. Thus, hard times and suffering have the possibility of bringing some people to embrace a change by force. Despite the complaints and grumblings that people make daily, there is currently a wind of change blowing across the globe. It brings a loosening effect.
Therefore, one of the symbolic meanings of what Nigerians are passing through currently is presence of a stimulating pressure for a forced awakening. Religious pundits who talk about the “sound of trumpet” actually mean the stimulating pressure that can awaken those in a state of lethargy and slumber. In our myopia and conceit we have come to regard money changing hands in dark deals as what constitutes corruption.
Truly, corruption is a symbolic name for an advanced stage of inner decay of human beings, whereby values and perceptions become narrowed and circumscribed. It is a human condition that is rightly captured by Oliver Smith as follows: “I ll fares that land, to a hastening ill, a prey, where wealth accumulates but men decay”.
Let myopic people see corruption from the superficial angle, but let those with advanced consciousness see it as symbolized in events and experience that we encounter daily. Wise people do not sit and talk about their agonies but rise up and do what is needful, there are individual Nigerians making such efforts in their private life, in spite of the stifling and suffocating global experiences.
There are those who may think that coming out of self-created difficulties, debts and burdens is an easy task. Hard times force us to recognize that there is a principle of personal responsibility whereby everyone bears the task of atoning for personal lapses and wrongs. Those who make such efforts with diligence discover that there is an opportunity or a grace which can make light the heavy burdens which individuals bear.
In serious studies of psychology there is what is known as the law of Reversed Effort which stipulates that things done with ill motives, with underlying fear and a troubled conscience, usually turn out ill. Similarly, there is an invincible power in human volition capable of turning conditions around for the better, via the grace and opportunity which atonement can provide.
Therefore, for an individual applying the power of volition toward the erasure of personal blemish, there is hardly any debt or burden too hard to atone for. However, the initiative must come from the individual, possibly facilitated by hard and bitter experiences.
Atonement or penance comes about when an individual makes conscious and diligent efforts towards personal ennoblement, which derives more from accurate knowledge of the laws governing life.
Superficial sanctimony or piety would not be of any value in such a project, rather, a deeply-felt change manifests in deep inner feeling or empathy towards others. The more such state of awareness grows in an individual, the more such a person is protected from the currents of evil effects.
Obviously, pending past wrongs hanging on the individual would not be obliterated, there would be some amelioration of the results arising there from. This is where the mechanism of symbolic atonement comes into play. Ordinarily in human experience, a debtor who is diligent and seen to be engaged in humanitarian activities would draw greater sympathy from his creditor than the one who is recalcitrant and profligate.
The voluntary donation of blood to save the life of the child of poor parents can be a symbolic atonement for an imminent penalty that would have hit the blood donor. Thus, voluntary humanitarian activities and services rendered out of love for suffering persons can be pre-emptive shields that can knock out pending debts and guilts. On the other hand, those who add more loads to already over-burdened humanity, do greater harms to themselves.
Wise people see the need to be simple, inwardly alert towards the plight of others and make efforts to rid themselves of excess luggage.
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.

By: Bright Amirize