The Difference

There is a saying that a candle loses nothing when it lights another candle. While this is actually true, I may add that by that action, the candle which has lighted the previously unlit candle has set off a chain reaction that is bound to move from generation to generation.

It is like trying to light a 100 metre corridor for a group of children to go across. No single candle may be able to carry out this task, as such 10 candles may need to be placed at 10 metre intervals. It is like passing on the torch after your bit is done. We all have contributions to make before finally departing.

While my belief in the hereafter is questionable, one thing which is certain and is clear for everyone to see is that a dead man is a dead man. We don’t have amongst us, in our generation, anyone who has died and resurrected and is currently living amongst us.

When we render a helping hand or an act of kindness to one in need, whether or not they have requested, we have set off a chain reaction that goes a long way beyond what the actual intention was meant for. No single act starts and stops at the same spot.

So for instance, paying a school boy’s trotro fare of GHC1 saves him GHC1 which could be difference between him getting lunch or not. His using that extra GHC1 available to him to get lunch gives the lunch seller an extra GHC1 which could be the difference between paying hospital bill and losing a life. The chain reaction can go on and on and on. We never know where this act of kindness ends up but one thing is sure, it could end up saving a life or lives.

There are times we do things to people which we feel counts to nothing, and these things bring these people to come like they’ll worship us just to show appreciation. We have no doubt benefited from previous acts of kindness that we carried out with no intention of reaping from, but they come back at us to reward us when we least expect and need it most.

It doesn’t cost a pound of flesh to donate blood which may save a life tomorrow, maybe the life of loved ones or ourselves. It instead gives us this “heavenly” level of fulfilment knowing we have done and achieved something great, like we have attained the final level of Abraham Marslow’s pyramid of needs, Self Actualization, which in itself is never possible.

Like the feeling I will get when I finally own a Brabus tuned G-Wagon.