A Lesson in History

It is exactly one week since the news of Ghana, my motherland, lost its first sitting president, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills. The news was a mixture of shock, sorrow and most definitely a hard learning curve for all of us.

Reflecting on the incidence and the many reactions since the news broke brings to mind a story I heard as I grew in my early days of my pursuit for truth and wisdom. The story has it that a man on board of a bus had just lost his wife at a hospital with his two sons. His sons were happily playing in the bus. A stranger in the bus descended heavily on the man for not been a good father and not being a responsible father, leaving his son to disturb public peace.

Not knowing the loss of the man, he in judgement treated the man who had lost his dearly beloved wife meanly. The man called his sons with tears in his eyes and calmly said to the stranger, "I am just from the hospital where I just lost my wife, I had to pick my boys from school,  they were happy, playing and joyful and thus I could not break the news to them but I guess you gave me the courage to share their loss with them. Thank you"

The story continues that, the sons became very quiet and started sobbing and weeping greatly together with their father. The stranger became all apologetic and sympathetic whiles everybody in the bus calmly watched him. The obvious question to me is, will the stranger have treated the man who had lost his wife differently if he knew of his loss?

The answer is obviously a yes! Death has a magical spell of bringing all humanity to terms with its own frailty and futility and the death of Ex-President Mills is no exception.

Elpis

Hope, like a gleaming taper's light, adorns and cheers our way; and still, as darker grows the night, emits a brighter ray. -Goldsmith

English language has been blessed with the expression 'Pandora's box' which is directly borrowed from the Greek myth of Pandora. The Pandora's myth was made famous by Hesiod's poem 'Works and Days'. Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC.

The myth has it that Pandora was the first woman on Earth endowed with beauty and many gifts. She was presented to Epimetheus, the representative of mankind, as a form of vengeance by Zeus when Prometheus his brother stole fire from heaven. Pandora was given a beautiful container which she was not to open under any circumstance.

Impelled by her curiosity given her by the gods, Pandora opened it, and all the evil contained therein escaped and spread over the earth. Evil had been leashed on Earth except for one gift left in the box, Elpis!

Elpis is the Greek word translated hope in many Greek text including The New Testament. There are forty-eight verses in the New Testament containing elpis, with but one reference translated as faith (Heb. 10:23), all others were translated as hope.

Ancient Greeks defined Elpis, in their mythology as the personification and spirit of hope (It was an extension of suffering not as good). It is in this background do I share my reflections on the words of a wise Hebrew King; "Hope put off makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life."

These words are part of King Solomon's collections of wisdom in Proverbs, recorded in chapter thirteen verse twelve. In one breath the wise King shares the taunt as well as the freshness of hope. Holding such powers to make the heart sick and to give fulfilment as the tree of life will. Some writers paint these sides well; "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torment of man."  This is an idea expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche. Benjamin Franklin expresses a similar thought as "He that lives upon hope will die fasting". These statements are profound statements about such pain as the idea of hope could engender. These line of thought brings us to see hope as an evil and a concept that cannot in anyway be a virtue and should therefore not be considered by any person.

Other writers, paints the refreshing nature of hope not only as beauty but as a need to fulfilling life. Helen Keller puts it this way, "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Napoleon Bonaparte expresses a much profound statement about leadership and hope. "A leader is a dealer in hope". Helen and Napoleon shows a clear alternate path to Friedrich and Benjamin words, not only in words but also in the astounding examples of their lives.