Because me and claustrophobia, I was already hyperventilating at the thought of it
By Viola Ifeyinwa Okolie
I know we have many questions but think about it this way; there is the richness of mind (and pocket), that pushes you to explore the possibilities of the universe.
If these 5 had succeeded, perhaps we would have reacted differently.
After all Jeff Bezos spent billions of naira to go and spend 3 hours in space – this is akin to what these guys tried to do. Spend billions of naira to go and spend 6 hours exploring the wreckage of the titanic.
It was also not the submersible’s first trip so sometimes… when it’s time it is time.
Beyond the fact that you wouldn’t, these guys were aware of the risks and inconveniences. They knew they would have had to spent the 10 hours of that trip sitting cross legged in the submersible.
Just one toilet in a space that would have heated up pretty fast if they ran out of air, at this point I guess it makes sense to say thank God it appeared to have ended really fast, really soon.
Because me and claustrophobia, I was already hyperventilating at the thought of it.
But then, the sort of riches that makes you put your life on the line for a one in a lifetime experience, is not the sort of riches that plans for vacation or plans to buy a house or spends around “plans”.
It may not even be the riches that comes from knowing you have money in the bank, but from knowing you have a life so full and rich, that death is not even a scary consequence of anything – if you perish, you perish.
We haven’t attained that level yet as Nigerians because death to us is a deprivation of a life full of unlived possibilities and untested boundaries.
Others have lived their life as it should be that death is an inevitable next step so when it comes, it comes.
I don’t know if that makes sense but the point is that our outrage in this corner of the world, is because we feel like there is still so much more left to live in life. We always feel like there is so much left to experience, so much left to see and we feel unable to accomplish all of these when death comes and the truth is that most of this can be tied to bad governance and extremely low quality of life.
But for people who live what we consider a quality life as their basic standard, there is little to no fear of death or feeling of – they still have so much to accomplish.
My “Oga” at work is 26 and some of the things he does, the thrills he seeks… like he doesn’t even see the need to pile up so much cash from working. He makes money in order to spend it, in order to give himself the next best experience.
I came to work on Sunday and he excitedly showed me picture of the most horrific wipe out ever he had had over the weekend, his knee was still bleeding and he spent half of the shift running around and trying to put a band aid on it. Yet you could see how thrilled he was to have had that experience.
He showed me the wipe out and then him at the summit of the hill he was struggling to climb when it happened. I was horrified, he was thrilled.
So my point is, it is okay for us all to have these conflicting emotions and wondering why people could have not considered the risks and consequences before embarking on that ill fated trip but the reality is that they KNEW for sure most likely, that there were a million and one possible ways their life could end on that trip, and that the odds were against the trip being successful rather than vice versa.
The Spirit of Adventure!
We aren’t there yet as Nigerians, our holidays are more hedonistic than stoic.
I don’t even know if or when we will ever get there, no matter how much we integrate into the West.
So, don’t fret yourself too much for these 5; don’t even cry or worry that they died “in their prime”. They may have died fulfilled because they were prepared for that possibility from the onset.
That, is the irony of a life well lived.