Brev-ity

Brev-ity:
Shortness of time and duration; briefness: the brevity of human life. 2. Conciseness; the quality of expressing much in a few words---
--- The Random House Dictionary of the English Language.





In childhood days I tried to keep journals, also known as daily diary entries, as it was called in Nigeria. I was not successful at it. I always ended up losing my dairy after a few weeks, or missed entries because of procrastination. I would put off writing in my diary and before I got around to it, days would have passed and I would finally give it up. I was trying to copy my father, who kept diaries and made entries every night before he retired to bed. He would do his breathing exercise and while kneeling there, he would write in his dairy. He kept diaries until poor vision made it hard for him to continue, and had diaries dating back to his younger days.

During the Biafran war,when we unknowingly attacked and depleted his saved copies of the West African pilot and the Nigerian outlook and used them for fuel, his diaries were spared. Short,to the point records of the daily events and activities, he carefully documented day after day. One of the initial problems I had with diary keeping was the ability to put all the happenings of one day into a short but detailed note. I asked for help and my father taught me how to squeeze the information into concise sentences, the fewer the better. Easier said than done. With my procrastination problem, and misplacing of my diary, I gave up on diary keeping, but the lesson on brevity remained. One or two word sentences, like a packed punch, which explodes to release information packed into them. Playing with words and finding the most appropriate one became the game.

In High school, there was a dedicated English teacher, who took interest in helping her students get the best out of her teaching. She stressed on the importance of the short sentence, and how they were much better than the long sequence of useless words. Picking out a few words which would convey the same meaning as the long verbose sentences, became a skill to be mastered, and a fun game. Comprehension exercises were used to sharpen the skill. She would give students assignments to condense pages of a narrative into a page or two page report and still keep the gist of the story.

As life progresses and I still find myself here on earth, thank God, I have looked back to see what I had done with more than half a century I have been blessed with. Putting it in brief, I tried to asses my life, or to put it in other words, to take stock. The passing of Steve Jobs last week, against the backdrop of all his accomplishments, makes the duty of taking stock of life even more important. At age fifty six, it would be right to say his life was brief, when held against his numerous accomplishments. He was rich enough to ward off any disease, if it worked that way. But life does not work that way. Life and death are no respecter of persons. He could have lived into his seventies or even eighties, but that was not to be. His biological father, at eighty, has a lot to reflect on in his long life. Human curiosity may make people wonder what could have become of Steve's life, had he not been adopted by his parents. Who knows? Could he have lived longer? Could he have accomplished so much? Nobody will ever have answers. He lived his life, made his mark and was done in fifty six years and made his exit with a bang. From my belief standpoint, I really hope he is having the kind of success he had in this world where he is now. The brevity of his life compared to eternity is staggering. Into his fifty six years, he packed so much and impacted the world so much. As if he knew he did not have too many years on earth, he packed the accomplishments of many lifetimes into his lifetime. It is always good to put the life-after into consideration as we run the race of life. That will be very helpful and will make all the trouble we go through in life worthwhile.
I looked up the word "bitch" one more time before using it here. It is not really a bad word, when used in the right context-- the context here being------Something that is extremely difficult or unpleasant--. There was this bumper sticker in the 1980s which read as follows----- Life is a bitch and then you die. To that I will add-----And then what?
Have a blessed week.

Nwada Chinwe Enemchukwu
Onye Uwa Oma
na
Orlando, Florida.
10/09/2011.
Pictures by Chinwe Enemchukwu