A PLACE IN THE SUN FOR YOU IN 2021 AND YONDER!

A PLACE IN THE SUN FOR YOU IN 2021 AND YONDER!

During the same time of December in 2019, Me and You and the whole World were preparing to be ushered into a new decade and the new century of the new millennium. People from different backgrounds and different walks of life were anticipating their immediate future in different mixed emotions complicated by equally accumulated anxieties from previous personal real life experiences. Festive Christmas was only a matter of a few days away, like ants, people were bustling, running around all over them places: earnestly preparing for Xmas celebrations, traveling in all modes of transport as if we had reached the end of the world. 

It is hard for me and for most of the people today, to have the same enthusiasm after all the bumpy and rocky year 2020 has turned out to be for the whole world. Our usual mood and excitement for the Festive Season has been altered forever whether we accept it or not: our fate has already been decided as dictated by the second most deadly Pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918: the Coronavirus or Covid-19. While the Coronavirus has killed and infected much less people compared to the Spanish Flu which saw 50 million deaths and 500 million infections worldwide; it is still the most devastating in terms of economic and its debilitating adverse psychotic effect it has on human survival. Never forget that for all life species, life is all about survival and unperturbed longevity for generations to come. We all see our own survival be carried over by our descendants even yonder the grave. We live when we die.

The song in our featured video sung by the legendary Stevie Wonder: A Place In The Sun, touched my heart and moved me to tears the first time I heard it a few decades ago when I mulled over its powerful lyrics; I was mesmerized. Stevie Wonder was the first artist to record this song on September 1 and October 24 of 1966 and was written by Ron Miller (lyrics) and Bryan Wells (music). A Place In The Sun was one of Stevie Wonder’s early and first recordings which saw him climb the Billboards.

Stevie Wonder who was born Stevland Hardaway Morris Judkins in 1950, has been blind shortly after birth: in other words, Wonder hasn’t been so fortunate like most of us to have seen the light and be wowed by all the beauty Heaven surrounds us with. Stevie Wonder and millions of other people living with disabilities around the world, is proof that one doesn’t need eyes to see and realize one's dreams. It’d have been easy and justifiably so for young Stevie to kind of give up on life and resign himself to a dark corner of oblivion and hopelessness. But no, Stevie Wonder wouldn’t allow his physical challenges to drag him down the abyss of human failure and instead chose to stand up on his feet and use the portion God has given him in this life: his unmatched musical talent which saw him rise like a phoenix out of the troubled sea. Today, I celebrate Stevie Wonder as one of the greatest musicians to ever walked this mind boggling earth of ours: where some of us blessed with all five senses, easily give up on life and commit suicide. Now that is very disappointing.

I hope you will listen to this uplifting song and sing along with a deep understanding that Stevie Wonder crippled by his blindness, couldn't have sung and popularized a more better tune than this classic written by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells. In retrospect, Stevie Wonder gave this song the right and fitting signature it deserved not only through his appealing voice with which he sings it: but the very life coupled with untold challenges and circumstances every blind person faces each and every day. Mr. Wonder takes all of us with him in this incredible life’s journey where each of us is expected to press on with and up with; bruises and whatnots! You’re left with no excuse having had the privilege to look through the glass at the life of this legend who dares and spurs us on, not to give up on life because there’s a place in the sun for everyone of us: no matter where you are or come from. Stand up and enjoy your sunshine. No one in this life can steal the shadow of your sunshine and no one can certainly block your God given privilege to look up to the beautiful skies at night.

Despite all the noises about the exploding human population across the world, which have forced Scientists to question the Earth’s ability to provide for the ever rising figure of more than 7 billion in terms of food and water sustenance; human life will continue to march through the horizon unperturbed. We are the world and the world is us and God’s Truth still marches on for it is He who planted our feet on the ground.

Psalms 124:1,2

1 (A Psalm of David.) The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

Image: Pexels

We live in a world which is 80% water and 20% dry land. I really do not intend to waste my precious time trying to convince anyone by preaching to the converted and convince you of the obvious facts known by all of us. But, it was not so easy for the people who lived in King David’s civilization when they heard him declare these unbelievable words: telling them our world was surrounded by waters. How did David know this was the case? By the Spirit of God. Well, David didn’t exactly say the world we live in was spherical but Prophet Isaiah did and explicitly declared what remained the most disputed theories in the history of men. In fact, in ancient days, people were sentenced to death for claiming the earth was spherical. I ain’t kidding you.

Isaiah 40:22

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as tent to dwell in.

Pythagoras the Greek philosopher is one of the many philosophers credited with suggesting the earth was round in 6 BC. But hello, Prophet Isaiah, who had no formal education didn’t just suggest the world was spherical but made a declaration it was so beyond the shadow of doubt some thousands of years before Pythagoras was born. Therefore, the Bible which was the first Book to be printed in Germany and became the Best Seller of all times: is the first Book to declare the world was round far ahead of Scientific civilization. Why? Because it is the Word of God.

WHAT DOES BEING BORN INTO THIS WORLD REALLY MEAN?

Me and you are born to live in a world full of turbulence, turmoils, wars, strife, pollution, greed, corruption, sickness and diseases, crime and imminent death. The very foundations of our world were not designed to be comfortable by God’s design since God founded it upon the raging sea storms and perpetual rising and threatening waves. It is not a panacea where everyone has their equal share. Some people have more than others and more than what they need while millions go to bed on empty stomachs. Justice and Equal Rights are marred by incessant racism and systematic oppression which is endemic to our very destruction if we give up on our will to live and survive despite all the challenges which inhibit us.

At birth, we’re all born through tears, crying and screaming as we breath for the first time. We live through tears all our lives and eventually die in accumulated tears as we cross over into the Hereafter.

Image: The TN Groups

Covid-19 has robbed and stripped us as humans of our rights to life and privileges to enjoy the world we were born to love and admire and shunted us down the quagmire of despair. Millions lost their jobs all across the world and millions times over are facing hunger and starvation like we’ve never seen since the last Pandemic of 1918. It’s devastation all around us no matter where you are, or from: and no matter what background you have. Covid-19 has leveled the ground where for the first time, the rich and the poor are forced to share the same common ground and confront the same enemy which threatens to decimate the human race. We’re all dying as it were.

SOME GLIMMER OF HOPE FROM PROMISING VACCINES

While all the conspiracies against vaccination are doing their rounds across the world, there’s a glimmer of hope arising from the horizon after a number of vaccine manufacturers reported high efficacy during their human trials. The first person to be officially vaccinated took place in the UK a week ago and these vaccinations are prescribed to be done in the space of 21 days apart. I really don’t have the time to deal with all the negative theories spread by conspiracists who do not have any proof for their goofy allegations and still fail to provide the world with a better solution on how to get rid of Covid-19. If’s a live or die situation: all up to you. I choose life.

MY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU

I pray that God will open your eyes and enable you to see that you are not alone in this world as you contemplate and wonder what sort of year 2021 is going to be for you. I pray that you get used to practicing the habit of looking all around you by counting your stars every single night you are depressed and filled with fear to face another day. I pray that God will grant you the heart, mind and attitude of Stevie Wonder that drags you out of the hole of despair and assures you of: A Place In The Sun where your hope can never be stolen by anyone or anything. It waits for you.

Image by AP: South Africans lineup for food relief in Pretoria

Perhaps you’ve lost your job which was the only source for your livelihood due to this Pandemic: please do not despair and always remember: you are never alone. Millions of people from around the globe can relate to your situation and please believe me: this too will come to an end one of these days just like it did in the 1918 Flu Pandemic. All the people back in those days, were as horrified and apoplectic as the people of our day in 2020. It’s also noteworthy to realize that the human race was not decimated by the 1918 Pandemic and hence we lived to look back and reflect to how all these incredible survivors who made it after 50 million deaths and more than 500 million infections and had the courage to wade through the waters of human grief and untold sufferings. You are not alone. Look in the mirror and all around you: as long as you can see life, hear voices and all kinds of noises that suffice to say: You will make it through rain or sunshine in 2021 and beyond!

Image: STR/AFP/GETTY

The world has never seen so much grief and despair since the days of the Great Depression, where everyone and everywhere can share the pain of having lost a loved one or someone relatives and colleagues succumbing to Covid-19. Our medical personnel and health workers have never been put under so much pressure since the last 100 years. I believe no medical schools ever prepare their students to be at the ready for so much turmoil and stress our doctors and nurses are going through: where they almost work around the clock without enough rest for their mortal bodies. Thousands of our front line workers have sacrificed their lives for the survival of the human race by giving up their family time and devoted their time fighting in the trenches of Covid-19. We owe these heroes and heroines our lives for every inch of oxygen we breathe in and out. I cannot begin to tell you just how stressful for our nurses and doctors to be the last ones who say goodbye to all our departed and having to be strong enough to inform these families how it all happened. Oh God, have mercy on us. Please stay with us, you can’t give up so late in the year. 

Always remember that death and pain is all about us and what makes us human; giving us the resilience to survive in all kinds of sea storms for we live inside the world of turmoil and ever rising killer waves. Death is and Death be us. If you’ve lost a loved one in 2020 in some way or another remember: life goes on and awaits for nobody. As you grieve your loss please use all the good memories you've had with your dearly departed, mellow into those dear moments and use them to grow wings under your arms which eventually carry and allow you to soar above all the pain of your bitter and sad loss. God's not dead because I can see you around me: you fill my life with hope to press on and up with.

I leave you with this Stevie Wonder classic also written by Ron Miller: Yesterme, Yesteryou, Yesterday. Stevie Wonder was signed up by Motown when he was just 11 years old and in this video Stevie must have been at least a tender 19 years old and already established as a force to reckon with in the music world. Extraordinarily, Stevie can play keyboards, drums and the harmonica in his own Stevie Wonder magic signature. He is also an accomplished Songwriter of note who has composed amazing tunes and for other legendary artists. The message is always in the music, don’t you ever forget that in order to survive all the way through 2021. I wish you well. God bless you and your family throughout this so un-Festive Season. I hope to wind up the remaining days of 2020 sharing some wonderful music videos with you and give each artist my lyrical and poetic touch in terms of reviews. I love music!

***Always remember that your Future is always happening between your Today and your Yesterday: Today is always work in progress!***