by Kingsley Oronsaye

“As it is said; the excesses of the rich will always provoke the iniquities of the poor”

One of the most startling news in 1988 was the death of Christina Onassis. She was the only surviving child of Aristotle Onassis and at his death in 1975, she became the richest woman alive at the age of 25. 13 years later, she died. The cause of her death? Pulmonary edema from an overdose of barbiturates; suicide was strongly suspected, having had a history of depression and drug use.

In a world where having things and striving so much to make the money to acquire those things has become what living is all about, it is sometimes imperative for us to sit back and ask ourselves about what is really important in life. Many of us will eventually come to realize that the acquisition of riches only changes misery, and does not end it completely.

Our life is now centred around the things we can acquire and accumulate; we are now trapped in a frenzied RAT (Running After Things) RACE. We are engaged in brutal competition with one another, to gather the most things and we even pray, fast and sow ‘dangerous seeds’ , for God to join our side of the struggle and competition with one another.

That which we have made the object of our lives, those things we are all so desperately seeking (money recognition, material possession, power etc), will not give us the anticipated peace and happiness that we really seek. In the recesses of our minds, we know this truth but somehow we feel trapped in this rat race, where our life is defined by how much we can garner for ourselves. In a society where creativity is scarce and not encouraged, it means that the only way we can have more is for others to have less.

We need to understand that there is no way we will make our world a better place without us becoming better off ourselves. We must come to realize that no more effort is required to aim high and achieve your greatest dreams and vision, than is required to accept and live a life of existential banality. Life is designed to be inspired by vision and driven by purpose and if you don’t have a well articulated vision and a strong purpose in life, well you are like the man who does not know where he is going; any road will take you there.

Within each of us is the power and the ability to make the world and our world a better place, if only we can transcend our human (personal) fixations. To manifest this power in our everyday life, we must intensify our ability to look at life directly, instead of through limiting beliefs and existential expediency.

As long as we continue to run after things and carry on with the mentality that there are limited resources in our environment, life will be a survival of the fittest; even those of us who have been able to gather so much for ourselves will live in fear, because most of the people around us having nothing  are likely to ‘attack’ us and try to steal from us- what we have worked so hard to accumulate.

As it is said; the excesses of the rich will always provoke the iniquities of the poor. There is actually enough of everything; the problem is that we are not inspired enough and creative enough to manifest this abundance into our everyday reality. So, with the little available, we have to fight and scrounge for and we consider ourselves specially favoured by God, if we can grab so much more than others.

Until we transcend our human mentality of fear and limiting beliefs, most of us will be trapped in the rat race. More and more of us must aspire to get out of the rat race and live the transcendental way of life, where our deepest aspirations becomes our everyday reality. More and more of us must be inspired and empowered to generate and pursue ideas, vision, concepts and frameworks that will manifest into abundance for everyone. Until we tow the path inspired by vision and driven by purpose, we will be locked in the rat race.

THE SAD THING ABOUT BEING IN THE RAT RACE IS THAT WHEN YOU WIN, YOU’RE A RAT.

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 Kingsley Oronsaye is a visionary. His friends describe him in three words; Mystic, Technocratic and Visionary.

30 Days, 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians from across the world to share their stories and experiences – creating a meeting point where our common humanity is explored.

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija