Opinions of Monday, 29 January 2024

Columnist: Anthony Obeng Afrane

The strange dynamics of life: The story of Pastor Timothy

File photo File photo

Life is very strange and could be extremely unfair. It can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards. As I was pondering over this, a friend sent me something that I think is worth sharing. And here it goes:

Someone got married and had to wait for ten years before having a child; there was another who had a baby within one year after marriage.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited for 5 years before securing a job; and there is another who graduated at the age of 27 and secured employment just after national service.

Someone became a CEO at the age of 25 and died at the age of 50; while another became a CEO at the age of 50 and lived for 90 years.

The Ghanaian gospel musician, Isaiah Kwadwo Ampong captures this interesting mystery of life vividly in his song, "Akokofunu". The lyrics of the song tell the story of a hungry madman who went about looking for food to eat.

Luck smiled at him; he saw a discarded dead fowl on a rubbish dump, and he took it home with much excitement. It was time to find a disused saucepan to cook the meat, but he roamed the whole village where he lived without a saucepan. With sadness written on his face, he went back home to sleep on an empty stomach.

Sometime later, the madman was on his usual rounds and chanced upon a clean saucepan; delighted, he ran about to scout for a dead fowl that had been disposed of but was not lucky, he never found one.

Out of frustration, he cried, "What kind of world is this?" When you have a dead fowl you don't get a saucepan to cook with, and just when you find a saucepan you don't get a dead fowl."

That is the story of some of us and one such example that forcibly comes to mind is that of Pastor Timothy.

In his quest to become president, he drifted from one religion to the other. At a point when he thought he had gained acceptance and wanted to come back, the people of his religion were frowning. The madman is absolutely right, the world is not a happy place to be.