by A. Kadir Jasin
Those who feel that the injury to their souls and sensibilities inflicted by the madness of fellow humans is too much to bear and want some healing, can join me in sailing down the river of life.
The river of life offers healing and renewal but not the Klang River. That particular river had seen a billion-ringgit contract awarded to a public-listed company to bring it back to life but it hasn’t done anything amazing as yet.
I’ll instead take you down the proverbial river that “trembles with fear” before entering the sea as was beautifully narrated by poet and thinker, the late Khalil Gibran, in the poem “Fear”.
“It is said that before entering the sea a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has travelled,
from the peaks of the mountains, the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast, that to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean because only then will fear disappear, because that’s where the river will know it’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.”
Our lives are like the river. They are meant to move. We can choose to stay in one place. But the river that doesn’t flow stagnates and over time it dries up.
As I had narrated many times before, I was born in a thatched house by the river and grew up in the paddy fields.
Like the river, it’s not unusual for us to tremble with fear at the prospect of encountering unfamiliar things in our journey.
Like the frightened river facing the sea, the vista ahead of us is vast and intimidating. To enter could mean to disappear forever.
But there is no other way. We cannot go back. To what do we go back to? Poverty and ignorance? Going back has become impossible.
We have to take the risk of confronting the unknown. Like the river, only then that our fear will disappear and we know our true worth or potential.
Instead of disappearing into the unknown, we become one with life that’s rich in knowledge, wisdom and blessings. We must confront the unknown. So, let’s sail forward together, embracing the journey and all it has to offer.
Datuk A. Kadir Jasin is a National Journalism Laureate
WE