MY CONDEMNATION

MY CONDEMNATION

John Steinbeck once wrote, “It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.” In September 2011, Kenya lost four prominent women; Virginia Wambui-Otieno, Dr Margaret Ogolla, Prof Wangari Maathai and Prof Sophia Githinji. These are women who spent their days on earth mapping ways to ensure future generations had a safe world to live in. From their writings, to their teachings, to their words, to their actions, they all set examples, that were all meant for the good of the world. These women will surely be missed because they have largely contributed to the all-round welfare of the Kenyan society and the world at large that their deaths bring no pleasure to anyone or anything for that matter.

That is how I want to live my life, to touch the world in a special way, to make a difference and be a part of the change that brings people better lives and be remembered for the good I will have done, for the lives I will have defended and protected. At the time of my departure, I also want to depart this world having made a positive change, a change that will have made the world a better place than I found it.

This is a tough condemnation, a lifetime conviction. Most people prefer to live a life where they care about themselves alone; they do not strain to look if their neighbor is okay. That is a life I can easily live, but I know that that life will make me the most miserable woman to have lived on the face of the earth. So I am opting out of the easy life.

It is okay to take care of me, otherwise who will, but there is only so much time I can spend on me. Twenty four hours a day is just too much time to be spent on me every day. I would like to dedicate a good number of these hours to others in the society, those who need me, those who need my help.

As a little girl, I lived with my elder sister, who is a very kind woman, she would always give even when she had very little and when I would ask her why, she would say that she is grateful that she is the one able to give and not the one borrowing. That statement only made sense to me recently, when I realized that where I am right now, I am also capable of doing something for others who are not in a position to and I will take up the challenge and do just that, help. Because the reality is that the society is in need of help, the community is in a loud cry for help. There are so many issues, poverty, crime, injustice, war, disease, illiteracy, inhumanity, indignity, hunger, tribalism and the list goes on further than the 700 words I am restricted to in this article. In one of these issues, I believe there is something I can do, however how little to be part of the solution that is very much required.

I have seen and heard the difference being made by the women on Pulse Wire, and every time, I feel a tinge of longing to be a part of the world change that Pulse Wire is engineering. The change that women on Pulse Wire are making in the world. I look at joining Pulse Wire not as an opportunity but as the sweet responsibility of coming together with others and deciding to take up the challenge of committing oneself to do better for the society.