WORLD, LAUGHERS AND CRIERS
Many think that their being in the world is just about leaving it a better or bad place. As a result, different persons make or do not make use of the opportunities that abound in the world characterized by hatred, bickering and brickbats where different persons have or lack vision with or without action.
Many see the world as a changing place that they must as well change with, but whether they are changing from good to bad or from bad to good, they do not care. All that is paramount to them is CHANGE. They do not take cognizance that the more there is peace in the world, the more we are creating an eternal world. The world would be a purposeful place and not a place for Laughers and Criers.
It was William Shakespeare, an English poet and playwright, extensively revered as the greatest writer in the English, born on 26 April 1564 (baptised) â€' 23 April 1616, who said in his book â€' As You Like It (2/7) â€' thus: All the world's a stage/And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts
The world we are living in is, indeed, a stage that is characterized by the good, bad and ugly. These three words were once my motto till I changed them to World, Laughers and Criers with many reasons, as we shall see on the burgeoning sentences. The Laughers don't mind the Criers, and the Criers want the Laughers to sympathise with them. But due to the human worldly ego, hence the aphorism, 'I don't give a dime.'
WORLD:
The world is such a wonderful place blessed by nature, but cursed by man. Man is parasitic and has dislocated the world from its original form for the lucre of economic interest. It has become obvious that people are ever ready to sacrifice the World in the manner that a Dalai Lama describes the actions of human beings against the world in the following sentences: Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. Then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present: the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.
The world is suffering a lot of things at the same time today, because of man's subtraction from nature. Man feels that words and ideas can change the world, without minding the detriments he was to incur. There was nothing wrong with the world; man is the problem with the world.
Walter Russell, in his book â€' The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe â€' captures the action of man in the following lines: Joy and happiness are the indicators of balance in a human machine… An inner joyousness, amounting to ecstasy, is the normal condition of the genius mind. Any lack of that joyousness develops body-destroying toxins. That inner ecstasy of the mind is the secret fountain of perpetual youth and strength in any man. He who finds it finds omnipotence and omniscience.
LAUGHERS:
In the sweetness of the world, many are laughers. Some undertake judgment against truth just to see that they laugh always. They share pleasure to the detriment of the world. They are refreshed by the many lies they tell or the truths untold. They laugh and laugh to the scorn of everything around them and see such as a weapon to destroy the world.
What many do not know is that their laughter can turn the world into painful situations, or painful situations into laughter. The Dalai Lama does not subscribe to this feigned peace and happiness of individuals, thereby saying: World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence; peace is the manifestation of human compassion.
These laughers see money as the medium to measure worldly success. They do not care to find the inner peace, which creates the ability for the world's people to live in harmony with them. But is laughter not also a rejoinder of both aggravation and overtiredness? Did this not come to be as man found out that he was suffering much and needed his own method to cheer up? Walter Russell sufficed it to say: You may command nature to the extent only in which you are willing to obey her.
CRIERS:
There was a saying that East, West, Home is the best. But this is no more as one's home may be his or her most dangerous place to dwell. He or she will not be free from wars, rumours of wars, bombs killing, poverty and sundry negative issues, which have characterised the world and made different people to become criers in their respective capabilities. Home is where one is free from damages.
Many have full cause for crying, because they are afraid of what the next minute would bring to them. Many are criers in their heart without showing off their beautiful teeth or have to clean up their faces, while others do. The former set of people grief and wear the flaws of their heart around. But no matter that they do not shed tears, when you see them, agony has shown all over them.
Stanley Elkin, in his 'Criers & Kibitzers, Kibitzers & Criers', writes that there's something comforting, almost soothing, about realism, and it has nothing to do with shocks of recognition â€' well it wouldn't, since shocks never console â€' or even with the familiarity that breeds content so much that the realistic world of literature is the one that always makes sense from a certain perspective even in its bum deals and tragedies, inasmuch as it plays â€' even showboats and grandstands â€' to our passion for reason.
He goes further to write that the realistic tradition presumes to deal, he means, with cause and effect, with some deep need in readers â€' in all of us â€' for justice, with the demand for the explicable reap/sow benefits (or punishments), with the law of just desserts and Nature's organic bookkeeping. And since form fits and follows function, style is instructed not to make waves but merely to tag along, easy as pie, taking in everything that can be seen along the way but not much more and nothing at all of what isn't immediately available to the naked eye.
CONCLUSION:
As I have shown above, we can see that the world is full of inscrutabilities and things that can be investigated. It is a world of amour, but it is left for the individuals to grasp the life that the world gives or not. The world is a place replaced with anger, antipathy and hurt, which a lot of people are holding unto. It is a world that it is impossible to be angry and laugh at the same time. This is why I chose the World, Laughers and Criers, as my motto. Those who may be crying today may not be those who will be laughing tommorrow. The hardship and success of the world are not static. They are monumental, as far as the world is concerned.
It is our right and obligation to separate laughter and pain, pleasantry and catastrophe, funniness and damage. We must know that the World is stronger than Laughers and Criers, just as imagination is stronger than knowledge and, myth is more compelling than history. I chose my motto with the three words, because I have a belief that dreams are more persuasive than facts and, experience will never prevail against hope. I have a belief that laughter is the only cure for sorrow, but both complement each other for the world's growth.
Laughter and Cry contribute to our growth and pleasure, making the world to sound sweeter. I'm thankful for Laughter and Cry, because they hardly kill, but make us to lessen the burdens confronting us. There is no wasted day in the world with laughter and cry involved. Some people like to cry than laugh, because they see it to be frightful than cry. From the moment I picked The Fountain contest I know that I will Laugh at last and compliment it with Cry of joy.
We have to sum up this text with the continuation of 'As You Like It'. William Shakespeare writes of man's activities in the world accordingly: His acts being seven ages/At first the infant/Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms./And then the whining school-boy,/ with his satchel/And shining morning face,/ creeping like snail unwillingly to school./ And then the lover,/ Sighing like furnace,/ with a woeful ballad/ Made to his mistress' eyebrow./ Then a soldier,/ Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,/ Jealous in honour,/ sudden and quick in quarrel,/ Seeking the bubble reputation/ Even in the cannon's mouth./ And then the justice,/ In fair round belly with good capon lined,/ With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,/ Full of wise saws and modern instances;/ And so he plays his part./ The sixth age shifts/ Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,/ With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,/ His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide/ For his shrunk shank;/ and his big manly voice,/ Turning again toward childish treble,/ pipes/ And whistles in his sound./ Last scene of all,/ That ends this strange eventful history,/ Is second childishness and mere oblivion,/ Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
World, Laughers and Criers is my motto!
Written By Odimegwu Onwumere
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