#147: The Math of Infinity

I would tell you that I love you tonight
But I know that I’ve got time on my side
Where you goin'? Why you leavin' so soon?
Is there somewhere else that’s better for you?

What is [life] if you’re not here with me?
What is [life] if it’s not guaranteed?
What is [life] if it just ups and leaves?
What is [life] if you're not here no more?
What is [life] if you’re not really sure?
What is [life]? What is [life]?

Tell myself I wouldn't cry when you're gone
But I know it's easier said than done
Look at me, look at me choked up now
Try to tell you but it won't come out

What is [life] if you’re not here with me?
What is [life] if it’s not guaranteed?
What is [life] if it just ups and leaves?
What is [life] if you're not here no more?
What is [life] if you’re not really sure?
What is [life] if it just ups and goes?

The lyrics above are from the American Musical Drama Series currently ruling television ratings: EMPIRE. The series premier opens with Veronika Bozeman’s struggling to put some soul into the above lyrics when recording the song What is Love. 

  
After two unsuccessful attempts, Lucious walks into the recording booth and (coincidentally at the 00:01:47  time stamp) asks her to go back to when her brother was shot and she was asked to go identify his body...

I made my way recently to the Freedom Corner section of Uhuru Park to mourn and pay homage to the 147 young lives lost in the Garissa Terror attack. I couldn’t help thinking back to these lyrics and the emotions they conjure (only replacing the word LOVE with LIFE).

 While a lot has been said and done to mourn these departed souls, We can go deeper and really reflect on what their lives meant. What our lives mean and whether death in its essence is a finality. 

The social media fraternity refused to let 147 be dismissed casually as another number with #147NotJustANumber. Vigils and memorial concerts have been held both locally and abroad in solidarity with the families of the departed, the injured and the country as a whole. 

We must not forget them. We must not forget that we are at war with dark forces. Our enemies are smart, well equipped, informed and determined to go to any lengths to have their way. We must meet them and eliminate them with an equal if not better zeal and determination. 
  
The 147 souls were young and still in the process of figuring out their future. Personally, I am lost between mourning their deaths and celebrating their short lives. But I am a believer in infinity...

Once conceived, we all embark on an infinite journey…

 There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1.  0.1, 0.11, 0.12…0.99999…A bigger infinite set between 0 and 2 and an ever bigger one between say 0 and 100… Some infinities are bigger than others infinities.

On that fateful morning, 147 for us ceased to be just a number.  It marked the beginning of the math of infinity.

Each of the 147 probably had a parent or two.

They had X siblings each maybe

Each had 1 or 2 or 3 or4 grandparents

An X number of aunts and uncles

An X number of cousins

Spouses and fiancés

An X number of comrades

An X number of friends

40 million plus fellow countrymen and women…

We can’t fully comprehend what each individual life lost that day meant to so many others left behind. There is no end (and probably even no beginning) to the math of infinity.

It is what we do with our infinities (BIG or small) that counts. The yardstick of quality is all the same whether you live to be a day old…an year old…twenty years or 100. Infinity is imprinted and enshrined in the lives you encounter and touch. 


 
 



It is the little joys you share with your loved ones. The discipline to not leave for tomorrow that which you can do today. The ability to free your soul of any hate or revenge. The motivation to live each day as if it was your last.

We pray and condole with the bereaved. Let them cherish the small infinities they shared with the 147 departed souls. 
 
We must all be vigilant and play a role to make our country safer. The government is us. Let us all govern the security dockets in our surrounding.

And because none of us knows neither the time nor the hour of our own departure, let our lives speak so beautifully to all who we love and cherish so that when our time comes, there will be a forever within the infinity we shall have shared…