The Futility Of Life - Part 1

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

The above poem titled Richard Cory, was written by the great poet,Edwin Arlington Robinson. The poem summarizes the futility of life. The poet shows that Richard Cory as an individual lacked nothing in life. In terms of outward appearance ,Richard Cory was so handsome that whenever he went downtown people would come out on the road or or outside their houses just to have a glimpse of him. In terms of wealth,the poet recognises that Richard Cory was richer than a king. It has to be noted, however,that in the days of the poet,the kings were the richest. Simply put,Richard Cory was richer than the richest in his era .

Surprisingly, the supposed perfect man took his own life in one calm summer night. It is still difficult for literature students to unravel why this gentle man could end his life tragically. Life itself is not only paradoxical but also preposterous,couples that do not have money to feed themselves end up having multiple pregnancies( twins,triplets ,quadruplets etc) while those that have the wherewithal to feed any number of children are barren . When we are jobless,we have all the time to enjoy ourselves but the money will not be there. On the contrary,when we are finally employed ,the money will be there but the time will not be there for us to enjoy ourselves.

In the same vein, Wilfred Owen,one of the most renowned poets of world war one,wrote a poem with the same titular theme,Futility. In line twelve of the sonnet ,the persona asked,' Was it for this the clay grew tall.' The poem is all about the fruitless efforts of soldiers in reviving an unconscious world war one victim( possibly another soldier).Despite all their resuscitative manoeuvres ,the victim later died hence what the persona was asking was, why should a child be born in the first place when the child could easily be killed when fully mature to take take up family responsibilities . At times parents deprive themselves of basic necessities of life in order to see to it that their children end up as Engineers,Barristers,Pharmacists and Medical doctors but they are saddened when these children die when they are set to take up the responsibilities of taking care of their parents.

People from the developed part of the world understood the futility of life hence they tend to reduce their family sizes but here in Africa,any man that does not have at least five children has not formed a family 'quorum' . The annoying aspect of the whole thing is that most of these parents in this part of the world live below one US dollar per day. To them ,God has mandated them to go into the world and multiply. The only multiplication they understand is increase in the sizes of their families hence their multiplication does not apply to their technology ,wisdom,dominance,profession,innovation etc.

Is it not morally wrong for a man to father more children than he can take care of? Most times these children end up as prostitutes,armed robbers or better still become factory fodders. Many end of as nuisance to the government and the society at large. There is no gainsaying the fact that the highest gift that parents can give to their children in this life is sound and qualitative education? Indira Gandhi summarises education as thus ,' Education is a liberating force and in our age it is also a democratising force,cutting across the barriers of caste and class ,smoothening out inequalities imposed by birth and other circumstances.' What is the difference between the bank manager and the gate man in the bank? Education ,of course, is the difference. Education is the only panacea for ignorance and poverty. I am sure that Thomas Malthus must have considered Africa and Asia when he postulated that,'the human population increases in geometric progression while food production increases in arithmetic production.

Mr Ndufreke ( real name withheld by me) was the only son of his parents. His father died early hence his mother singlehandedly brought him up. Story has it that his mother 'cooked' him spiritually in the African way. Thereafter,he married many wives and fathered many children. His children were so numerous that the villagers always teased any of his children not to marry within the village ,in order to avoid incestuous marriage. This shows that he married from virtually all the families in his community. To Mr Ndufreke,his polygamous lifestyle was to make up for the siblings he never had.

None of his children received any formal education the way his single parent did not train him in school ,in fact each of his wives was financially responsible for the upkeep of their respective children. In view of this ,many of his daughters were killed by HIV as part of their occupation hazards as prostitutes. Some of his male children were killed by law enforcement agents over one robbery incident or the other . Others are still serving different prison terms after being convicted of one crime or the other . The remaining children ended up as factory fodders.

Meanwhile ,when Mr Ndufreke became sick,none of his numerous children was financially stable to take good care of him hence he died of that geriatric sickness. Those around hurriedly deposited his remains in the nearby mortuary. He stayed in the mortuary for years before a consensus was reached by the community to bury him since his numerous children abandoned him in the mortuary for many years. Earlier ,during the preparations for his burial,each meeting summoned by his children would either be stalemated or would end in free for all fight corroborating the English adage which says that,'too much cooks spoil the broth.' It is clear that a child that is well trained and empowered educationally is more than numerous children that are neither trained nor empowered by their parents.

At times I imagine what would happen if Barack Obama were in Africa with his two daughters and no male child? The desire to have a heir- apparent would definitely make him marry many wives . What of Bill Clinton with only one daughter,Chelsea? George W. Bush has only Barbara Pierce and Jenna Welch but if it were in African setting,these men would have at least five wives since they have the material resources to manage such large family sizes. Instead of multiplying in the sizes of their family ,these great men decided to multiply in their humanitarian functions hence bringing hope to the poor, the downtrodden and the rejected, mostly in Africa and Asia. Some of their humanitarian gestures include : William J. Clinton Foundation addressing international causes such as the prevention of AIDS and Global Warming ; On the request of Obama,the Bush and Bill Clinton Haiti fund was inaugurated to raise contributions for relief and recovery efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

I think time has come for our legislators to start sponsoring bills on fertility control,making it a crime for parents to give birth to children without a well defined plan to train the children up to tertiary school level or empowering them in other aspects of life . This is because many of these political thugs,prostitutes and armed robbers are either school dropouts or those allowed to fend for themselves at tender ages.

Dr Paul John
Port Harcourt,
Rivers state.
08083658038
[email protected]