CLOSE YOUR EYES and THINK

A day such as this is a day of sober reflection. Reflection on a very subtle reality of an undeclared war between nature and pleasure; reflection far greater than the moment of grief according to the September 11 attack or to any military battalion ever wasted in the noonday. It is said that the world has lost to AIDS what it didn’t lose to both World Wars. It is a day that we need to close our eyes, not for a moment of silence but for a deep sigh of wisdom. We need to close our eyes.

Close your eyes, let's dream of a future where everything is beautiful and colorful; a future without decay and chaos, a future of all possibility; a future where our children will learn to love in the right way without fear of the unknown. A future of love, unreserved cuddle, and warm brotherly embrace with no strings attached. A future of promises held and promises kept. A future where every face beams with hope and every smile tells a story of love. The future of every dream comes true.

Close your eyes, try to see today in that future. Try to see the man or woman next to you. Tell me, what do you see? A mortal undefined? A mutant trying to poison our beautiful world? A deadly virus walking around as a precious free gift? Or can you picture the future in a picture of silver? What does the next human mean to you? A parasite to be tolerated or a gift to be cherished and embraced?

 Close your eyes and see the real world, see the mutant the world has long predicted is here. Or do we call it alien, or maybe a virus? Whatever we choose to call it; it is here, right here, on our streets, in our schools, in our churches, and even in our rooms. It was predicted long ago. The world has been watching and waiting for aliens. Could it be that it is here and we didn’t even know it? Close your eyes and examine this reality.

Close your eyes and the next human you see is a mutant. The virus in his system is a mutating virus that not only wants to destroy him but any other thing that comes in contact with him. These mutants are not those with special abilities for survival but special abilities against survival. Like the legendary X-Men comics, these mutants are for real. Do we kill them or the virus they carry? If we try to kill the virus, we may end up killing them. But if we try to love them we may end up saving them from the scourge of the virus. This virus is foreign; it multiplies ignorance, discrimination, and stigmatization. The new flesh and blood X-men are here, and they have come to stay. The only way to make Storm and her positive crewmembers use their powers to benefit and not bereaved mankind is to love them.

Close your eyes and tell me you have never seen or heard of anyone who died or is living with AIDS. Many, very many loving as well as caring people today are living positively. Carrying a virus, a special gene that wars against their survival. They fight a war that is not visible to the human eyes. All we can at least do is not to create a visible war for them. All we can at least do is to make the air they breathe a friendly and peaceful one. Give them a more acceptable and agreeable atmosphere. Believe me, a more lovely and tolerable you can give them the needed energy to defeat the enemy within and win the war against these foreign entities.

Close your eyes and see that those living positively are not sick people. They don’t have a problem, it is you that discriminate against them that has a prejudice problem. They don’t want to be pitied they want to be loved. They don’t need medication, they need your intercession. Understand that the world today is not sick of a deadly virus, it is sick of love and acceptance. Men in their millions are dying more of self and societal isolation than diseases and poverty.

Close your eyes and see the flaw of this strong challenging and striving virus. See that it is not infallible; see that it is not unconquerable. Even if it is stealing its way into our very soul, into the core of our young peoples’ lives, it has flaws, we can cut it down. We can make it suffer, we can make it go away, we can make it disappear, never to be seen among humans again. Close your eyes and think and see. It has a flaw. There is nothing without a flaw. If we can find its flaws, we can floor its stride.

Close your eyes this last time and hear my story. It was a story that happened many years ago in a little town called Hamelin. Hamelin was in trouble, bedeviled by gruesome rats who ‘fought the dogs, and killed the cats; bit the babies in the cradles; ate the cheeses out of the vats; licked the soup from the cook's own ladles; split open the kegs of salted; made nests inside men's Sunday hats; and even spoiled women's chats, by drowning their speaking with shrieking and squeaking; these rats were voluptuous vermin from hell. To the leaders, the people cried and to their brains, the leaders rack without a solution. But then came the strangest figure! A tall man and his quaint attire who promised to rid the town of rats by playing a tune on his pipe. To him, the leaders promised to pay a thousand Gs. He stepped unto the street and played his pipe and all the rats in the town followed him, he led them to the river and drowned them all to the amazement of the town and its leaders.

When he came back for his reward, the leaders laughed at him and said the reward was too big for him. The strange man took his pipe again and played a different tune. All the kids in town heard it and filed out, every one of them dancing and following the strange piper. The leaders were dumbfounded and the people stared without a word as the piper led the child, the future of the town, a way to the mountain that opened up, and the children, as well as the piper, disappeared forever.

This story was poetically narrated by Robert Browning and he did cap it up with this little advice, which I like us to take to heart.

“So, …, let you and me be wipers of scores out with all men-especially pipers:

And, whether they pipe us free, from rats or from mice, If we've promised them aught (anything), let us keep our promise.”

But my question is, couldn’t we have kept our promises? If we couldn’t keep our promises, we could have at least asked the piper to stop or even make him go away, far away from where our children can’t hear his hypnotizing music, why stand and watch? If we couldn’t make him go away, we could have shut the ears of our children from hearing the charming tune of the piper.

We can’t just sit there leaders, we must make the soporific power of HIV/AIDS go away. We must keep our promise to keep the town safe and secure. We must protect our children, we must protect our future. No amount is too much to save our future from this hypnotizing strange piper called HIV/AIDS. We don’t want to end up like the town of Hamelin weeping over spilled milk. We must strike now. We can’t afford to act as the leaders of Hamelin, looking for the strange piper so we can pay him off if he can only return with the children the way he went. It was too late for them. Now is the time, keep your promise, save the world from this strange piper. Even if our leaders wouldn’t their promise, you can save yourself, do it now, save the future. Keep the promise to yourself, live right; keep the promise to the world, play right and give right.

Close your eyes and see a new world of possibilities. A new world without diseases, without HIV/AIDS. A world of beautiful weather, a world of cream and fabulous beaches, a world of green countries and healthy bodies, a world only made possible if we do the right things and keep our promises. HIV/AIDS is not a mystery we cannot solve. Together we can, YES, we can.

 

Contributed by

Austin Imoru, founder, Sisters’ House of Esteem

https://.she.com.ng