Yesterday, at a youth leadership development workshop organised by Goa Sudharop, the Chief Guest, Fr Maverick Fernandes was at his innovative best. Instead of speaking from the podium, he walked to the whiteboard and wrote about a person born in 1976, dead in 2000 and buried in 2006. Then he asked the young participants about whether such a situation was plausible.
The interaction that followed threw up many suggestions. Some opined about a possible delay in finding the body after death. Others imagined that there was some sort of dispute over the dead body. Fr Maverick led the discussion to consider that the death was actually referring to a disconnect with real living by the person. A situation where the person was technically existing but not living in the real sense!
We need to ask ourselves the questions that Fr Maverick queried of his listeners… Are we akin to such a person whose living purpose is only to exist? Is there meaning and purpose in our lives? Does our existence mean anything for the world that we live in? Are we dead or alive to the challenges that loom beyond our existential needs?
So easily we insulate ourselves from being alive and responsive to the situation that surrounds us. So often we are dead before a real death. So often we bury our heads in our comfort zones and ignore the real reality out there. Let’s be better at choosing to be alive and proactively responsive to every challenge that comes with life.
To every trial that comes with being…
Let’s BE BETTER at responsive living!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
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