“When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness. Human should be like a pot. As the pot is held by its emptiness inside, human is hold by the awareness of his nothingness,” so alluded Shams Tabrizi. To Eyedea, “Everything is something, but something is nothing.” Let’s reflect on the perspective that what you consider as something may actually be nothing.
Does what you have make you think you’re something? Billy Graham cautioned, “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.” Does power make you feel you’re “somebody?” Condoleezza Rice reminded, “Power is nothing unless you can turn it into influence.” Are you carried away by your position? Herb Kelleher observed, “Positions and titles mean absolutely nothing. They’re just adornments; they don’t represent the substance of anybody. Every person and every job is worth as much as any other person and any other job.” While it’s natural to have a feeling of somebodiness based on position, power, wealth etc, the bitter fact is that there is emptiness in all these. And so what you consider as something has nothing embedded in it. For instance, listen to Voltaire: “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” In the words of the Biblical wisest man, “So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure… Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labour in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind…” (Ecclesiates 2: 9-11). Chengeer Lee shared his experience: “Talking to many people that are much older and experienced than me gave me the idea of what really matters at the end of life. Everyone says the same — the most important thing in life is people.
So, review your perspective about life and your focus on things. Be conscious of the nothingness of everything and so declutter your life to enable you focus the nothings that are something rather than the somethings that are nothing. If your level of education makes you feel high, then listen to the Socratic paradox: “For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing.” Unlike many today, according to Wikipedia, “Socrates, believing the oracle but also completely convinced that he knew nothing, was said to have concluded that nobody knew anything, and that he was only wiser than others because he was the only person who recognized his own ignorance.” Listen to Chengeer Lee’s confession: “There is no point to all of the pain, stress, arguments, hassles, and the rest… I learned something years ago, long after my 30s: It doesn’t matter. None of that stuff made me happy. It gave me pleasure, but pleasure fades and the darkness falls unless you are happy at your core. I am. So, I’d have liked to know not to take life so seriously. It cost me my first marriage and bad relationships all over the place because I tried to grind my way up the ‘ladder of success.’ And it didn’t mean a thing.”
As you step out, be conscious of Art Buchwald’s note: “The best things in life are not things.” So don’t let the things that are not things make you lose sight of the things that are things. When tempted to to take pride in something, remember the nothingness in somethingness. Rather, explore the nothings that are something.
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Dr. (Engr.) Esang Esitikot is a COREN-registed chemical engineer, an HSE professional, a public affairs analyst, marriage counsellor, youth mentor and volunteer lecturer at the Institute of Health, Safety, Security and Environment, University of Uyo. He works for an international oil company and can be contacted via 08035103559 (Whatsapp only).
