Can everybody be rich? Can everybody become a millionaire, as an influencer, for example? Then there would be no homeless person in Silicon Valey. If everybody were rich, who would work in the fields or in mines or in factories? Can any French native speaker be a good teacher of French Grammar? Can any good football commentator be a good football coach? Can any professor of Management make a good company manager?
A car hits a motorcyclist and knocks him off his bike, seriously injuring him. The ambulance arrives right away, the police too. The victim is transported to the hospital as a matter of urgency. Doctors and nurses welcome him into the emergency room. His family learns the sad news by telephone and soon joins him in the hospital, offering him flowers. A lawyer comes to inquire about the facts. He wants to know whether the victim has the right insurance. Meanwhile, a mechanic arrives to repair what he can. Then a sweeper comes to clean the area of the accident. Is it not said that the misfortune of some makes the happiness of others? When someone works in an SME that manufactures cables, computer systems, or other, for military aircraft, does he think for a moment of the potential victims of the planes equipped with his cables, etc.? What would the doctors, nurses, pharmacists... do for a living if there were no sick people? What would the mechanics, the lawyers, the insurers, the paramedics, the courts, the flower vendors, the telecommunications operators, the sweepers, do for a living if there were no such problems?
Who can count how many people would “live off” a wedding or a funeral? Apparently, a lot of people live off that!
We cry when we lose our father, we smile when we receive our share of the inheritance. It is because one knows that he’ll be hungry that he goes to the grocer’s. The hairdresser is there because there are necessarily people who will need a haircut. In Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco, many people suffer during the period of the aïd-el-kebir, because many shopkeepers and almost all craftsmen (plumbers, mechanics, electricians, repairers of refrigerators, etc.) disappear from the city. They go and spend the holiday with their families in their native towns and villages. They return ten or fifteen days later to revive the white city. The barber (tooth puller) needs someone who has a toothache but does not have enough money to go to the dentist; the shoe repairer needs someone who has torn his shoes but cannot buy new ones; the mechanic needs someone who has had a road accident… When X or Y has such a terrible night-time toothache pain, does he think of all this?
Some men remain poor all their lives and some men remain disabled all their lives. But should a poor man accept his state of poverty as something fated for him and not try to improve his living conditions? Should I be like Jilali when I think I could be much better off?
If all men were like Jilali, for all his bliss and contentment, would there
have been such men as Alexander the Great or such civilizations as the Roman
Empire or such beautiful monuments as Taj Mahal in India and Alhambra in Spain.
If all men were like Jilali, would it be possible to have breakfast in Paris,
lunch in New York and dinner in the skies on the way back to Paris? If all men
were like Jilali, would there have been such cities as New York or Tokyo or
Dubai? Would there have been any star wars, space conquests, discoveries,
science, literature, any development at all? If all men were like Jilali would
there be any dreams?
We’re all tempted by the big-strong-and-fast kind of life. The funny thing is, whatever we do, however genius we are, there’s always somebody one step ahead of us, with something a little bigger, stronger or faster than we have. It’s a Tom-and-Jerry game!
I go to the outskirts of the city to change air and meditate a little. I go a little further and find not only large fields belonging to rich persons, but also dazzlingly beautiful homes. Each time I sigh (and say) “I wish I had such a beautiful dwelling!” I see another one, more beautiful, then another one, much, much more beautiful. It’s like a man obsessed with beauty looking for a beautiful woman in a big city, each one makes you forget all about the others. Then I go a little further and find an asphalt road. I stop for just a few moments and I see not one, but many cars I’d desire to have for myself. Who then would I be jealous of? That asphalt road leads me, past large farm houses, to a poultry factory. Will I be jealous of the owner of this factory too? How many people work in this factory? How many families do they support? How many people, jobless people, would be happy to find work, even seasonal work, in this factory? How many chickens and eggs does this factory produce every day? How many people will buy, transport, etc, these chickens and eggs before they land on my dinner table? How many other people will eat that factory’s chickens and eggs? That “poor” farmer and the “poor” owner of that poultry factory and the people working for them…………… are all servants of ME! They serve Me. I can’t count the people who are serving me every day! The clothes I am wearing, who made them for me? I did not sew them up myself? The watch I’m wearing, my mobile, etc, etc, etc. Am I not a king? Who told me, for example, that the farmer is happy? Not every smiling person is happy. Even a happy-go-lucky comedian who makes millions of people “happy” with his gags may end up taking his own life, to everybody’s surprise.
I look at these poor women and children sitting on the ground, waiting for the
potato harvest to be finished. To while away the time, some of the women chat
and joke with one another. Others keep quiet, looking on as some seasonal
workers, men and women, poor like themselves or even poorer, dig up the
potatoes while others put them in wooden or plastic boxes. Other workers, men
and women, carry the boxes on their shoulders to the trucks outside the field.
Near the trucks are a few cars and a few men. One car and one man stand out.
Anyone can tell who the eye-catching man is. He is evidently the farmer. The
eye-catching car is his.
This man is the Star of the Day. I can well imagine that the men would wish to
be like him, having what he has. The women would not easily refuse to marry him
or accept him as an in-law. He has such a vast field worth a lot of money and
such a splendid car and he wears such smart clothes and glasses and everybody
is speaking to him politely and addressing him as Haaj ! Maybe
he has got other things elsewhere. His wife might be shopping, at this time, at
some mall or other, or maybe playing golf or perhaps having a sauna at a 5-star
hotel. His children, if he has any, must be at expensive schools… How
lucky he and his family are!
Yet, I stop to think. Starting with the land, it needs workers to prepare it;
maybe others, men and women, to do the sowing, etc. The farmer may also need an
engineer or specialized technicians. He certainly needs people to transport
something or other, etc, etc. On the harvest day, there’s more work for more people.
When the harvest is finished, those poor women and children sitting by and
waiting patiently will be allowed into the field to glean the leftover potatoes
… The “good” potatoes will be transported and delivered to markets,
supermarkets and small shops. Some will be exported or processed, etc, etc. I
say to myself: See? The farmer won’t eat all his potatoes! It’s people like me
who’ll eat the potatoes. The children (and husbands) of those poor women will
be happy to eat those “bad” potatoes. And who knows? Some of these poor women’s
children may become, one day, maybe less rich, but much better, in one way or
another, than the children of the Star of the Day. Then, part of the money that
this one man will earn from the potatoes will go into other
people’s pockets: hotels, restaurants, schools, hospitals, etc. I just can’t
count how many people will benefit in one way or another from this farmer’s
potatoes. I can’t count, for example, how many kids will be happy to eat the
chips made of those potatoes. Not to mention the other “lucky person”, the
owner of the potato chips factory and his employees…
I stand between two vast potato fields in order to meditate on all this. I
think about the seasonal workers who were happy to find work in these fields.
These workers, who have families of their own, were paid -whatever the pay.
This little casual meditation leads me to ask myself questions: do I want
to succeed at all costs or to be happy? It's not the same thing, I suppose. I
know that many people who have been successful are anything but happy, and many
people who are happy have not been so successful. So what do I want? Be both
happy and successful? Okay, but what should come first: success or happiness?
I have noticed that men remain men, after all. They are human beings. There's a limit to what they can stand, whatever the (high) level of their faith and (exceptional) degree of their sincerity. Even prophets experienced moments of weakness vis-à-vis society, because every man likes to be liked in society. No man would like others to speak ill of him, me first.
Sometimes I say my problem is not so much with God, or with the Government, it's with society. People keep asking me -or wondering- what I do; some want me to say I'm jobless. They lecture me on what I should do to get a (new) job -as if I were new to this world! They want to see weakness in my look, in my voice. They want me to feel small. They want me to feel ashamed of myself. That's my problem. But then I think and realize what most people have in common: greed, arrogance, impatience, envy, etc. What would people say if I had a good job, etc. etc.? Wouldn’t they envy me? Wouldn’t that be a problem too?
But it’s hard, it’s very hard to stand shoulder to shoulder with other men when I can't even find words to explain my situation without lying to them? How can I persevere? How can I be an ambitious man when I see that people with less qualifications than I are by far better off? What's left for me to dream of at this age? That's my problem. My problem is not with the Scripture or with the State, it's with society. Then, I keep on thinking to myself until I burst into laughter like a fool!
Gloom would enshroud me the moment I hear that I'll be laid off, or the moment I leave my workplace for the last time. I know then that I won’t be able to stand before people who are lucky to keep their jobs without feeling some kind of shame or guilt. These are always hard moments. Yes, it’s not always easy to think and laugh.
This is a very serious problem indeed -even in normal times. Even very highly educated people who find very demanding, very challenging job adverts in prestigious magazines, and reply to those ads and pass all interviews and are accepted and do start work with very good salaries…, they don’t know what may happen to them in the future. All the education and skills you got, that’s the past. You may still have to worry about marriage, if you’re not married yet, or about your children, if they’re still young, or about your health… and all that is in the future. In other words, problems never end.
You could go onto commercial websites and make some money without leaving your
bedroom, but that’s only one part of life.
I may have good insurance. The insurance will only solve the money side. Insurance will not replace a lost eye or a lost limb. Insurance will not solve the immaterial side (feelings and emotions, affection, mental strength…). And all that is in the future. The best economic minds of the world were unable to anticipate, let alone to avert, the 2008, Financial Crisis and now the whole world is battling Covid and its consequences… I’m not sure my mind can anticipate (and avert) bad things for my humble self?
Now imagine I got a good job after a long period of unemployment. Probably the first thing I’d think of is to show that off. I would love other people to know what I’m worth. And when things go badly, what do I do? I might try to hide from people. But how long will I hide from people? People will end up knowing that I am jobless, that I am suffering. People will end up showing me their true faces. They will show me what I am worth in their eyes. I would feel small, unworthy. I would realize that I am worth what I have, what I possess. I would see how the people I thought good friends would react to my misery. I would see how members of my beloved family would react to my unending unemployment. I would see how people would let me down when I need them most. But how would I feel when I have the money again to buy what I couldn’t buy a year ago, or to go to places I couldn’t show up my face six months ago? That's the shepherd's answer to the shepherdess, isn't it?
When I think about these fragile people I see on the street (beggars, homeless people, prostitutes…), I realize how weak Man can become after all his strength and power.
When I go out on the street with a clean jacket and clean trousers, who will know that there’s no money in my pockets? Because I don’t beg, people will think I am self-sufficient. So nobody will come forward to help me even if I am over-laden with debts and probably cannot even afford my day’s food. I go on the street like a normal person -as if I were rich. Maybe I’m rich in my heart. That is to say, I am not impressed by what other people got. I don’t care who has what. I am not amazed at other people’s achievements. I respect everybody. I wish good to everybody. But -after all- I too wish to be a normal person just “like everybody else”! If other people are in a hurry to get everything in this world; if they want to get something at age 20, another thing at age 30, another thing at age 40, another thing at age 50… I just hope to get something before I die! And I’d do everything I possibly can to achieve that, as though I’m going to live forever.
At least, by talking to myself like this, if I'm lucky enough to have strong nerves at the right time, I might succeed in temporarily calming the ardour of my soul, which cannot accept the fact. Self-coaching can be more soothing than somebody’s counseling sometimes.
Now, if I had the means, would I give a thought to those people who would say the same thing, who would have the same emotions, who may be in the same situation and I probably do not know about them because they look alright when they go out on the street? Maybe many of these people found themselves in need of basic things. Maybe they tried everything they possibly could to get those basic things -all to no avail. And maybe they were finally convinced that there was nothing the matter with their personalities, or intelligence, or talent or physical ability to get work, for example, and therefore be able to acquire what they needed. Maybe they blame Fate. I don’t know.
I do follow the news. So I see that in many countries a lot of people are losing interest in politics. They are convinced that their vote has been rendered useless and that the democratic game no longer serves any purpose. For them, nothing will change. And so they only go to the polls when there are heavy fines. But I also see that many people still trust -or at least expect something from- the Government. Only, unfortunately, many governments are finding it increasingly difficult to meet people’s needs (jobs, healthcare, education…). Some people chose to revolt and topple rulers and bring down regimes. They want, they said, to have their Fate in their own hands. It is the fear of the future. Is this fear legitimate?
Well, even a great emperor would be afraid of losing his throne. More than fear, which may not always be justifiable, there are many undeniable realities. Age is a fact: nobody remains young and strong forever, and there's death at the end of the road. Even at the height of our youth and physical and mental strength there’s sleep, for example, and this sleep is a form of total helplessness. Do we think about such small things?
The world does not work in a mechanical or automatic way. Certainly, a wheat grain will always give a grain of wheat and an egg will always give a hen's chick. That's the rule. But it is not because a man slept with a woman that there will inevitably be a child. It is not because it rains that the land will yield fruit and vegetables. It's not because it's the same father and the same mother that the children will have the same size or the same facial features... In some places people are killed by floods, in other places by drought.
A baby could be born in the best birthing clinic or in the best palace in the world, but for him, at birth, it's not like in the womb. That's probably why he cries! What does this mean to me, anyway? It simply means that, as a human being, I should expect danger before quietude, problems before solutions, boos before applause, suffering before deliverance... We can all see that problems, danger and fear are part of our world, whether we like it or not. Calling it pessimism or realism makes no difference at all. Even if I started thinking about it in the most complex way I would never be able to understand everything. I can never know it all.
And yet the world isn't as nasty as that. There are so many happy people in the world. That’s a fact. There aren’t just poor people. So what do I do when I'm faced with any situation? Well, I choose, according to my personal beliefs, or sometimes depending on the conditions in which I live, and then I take responsibility for my choices. My choices, active or passive, free or coerced, can move me away from other people just as they can bring us together. There are many people who convert to another religion without any problem. There are people who flee countries where they no longer feel free to do what they want or behave as they please. Others, on the contrary, leave the freest countries in the world to live where life can look like hell. It's a matter of choice. And it is also a question of possibility. It is not easy for a Sunni to convert to Shiism or for a Shiite to become a Sunni, for example. So it's not always easy to choose. Only, when you choose, you have to take responsibility for your choice.
I only have to make use of my intelligence to discern right from wrong. It’s up to me to see the beauty in humans, in birds, in streams, in animals, in the starry sky, in the sea, in poetry, in music, in arts, in people’s clothes, in their differences: physical, cultural, civilizational and other. It’s up to me to appreciate this chance I’ve been given to feel and sense the beauty of this world in all its forms. Certainly, there is so much misery in this world. There are plenty of problems. And there will be even more in the future. Who doesn't have one’s everyday little worries? However, and no matter how difficult and short, life is much more beautiful than it may look sometimes. If it is short and difficult it is certainly for a reason -as we will see in the second part of these reflections. When we are young, we often think of the good life. But even when you get it, life is not just the salary and the company car. We could end up facing a tasteless, utterly monotonous, meaningless life. We could find ourselves in a very nice situation, but in a city full of pollution, waste, crime, etc. So would we say that life is not beautiful? Life is felt, it is not lived. Whether you eat fish or meat, potatoes or caviar, it comes down to the same thing. You are no longer hungry. Whether you feel happy about it or not, that's the question!
Now, if I want to question myself in relation to existential realities rather than just my daily worries, should I be content to only be inspired by birds and not see the beautiful plumage of these birds or their incredible migration? Should I be content to distinguish colours and shapes and know their names and not think about where all these colours and shapes came from? Who created them? And why?
I’ve grown to believe that we're all human. But it is more than just a belief. It's a reality. We're all fragile. We have the same fears, the same aspirations. All eat vegetables and fruit, bread and cheese -if they can afford that. All want to grow up, work, get married. All will have -more or less- the same problems and the same pleasures. We all need water and oxygen. The same water from the Seine (River), or the Nile, is drunk by plants, animals, whites, blacks, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists... Provided there is water for all! Sometimes there is none, or not enough. People die from hunger or thirst. Others migrate to flee famine. Who would talk about beauty to these people? But what do we do when we have the rain, when we have the breeze and the poppies, when we have the butter and the honey? What do we do when life is smooth and easy? Well, we don't care about fate!
I see that our eyes do not always have the same colour. Even eyes with the same colour are not identical. Everyone is a separate being, regardless of his beliefs. Everyone has his/her own fingerprint and his/her own eye print, and that's not because he/she is Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. Everyone has his/her own voice, own heart, own brain, own life. Who designed all this?
We could all say that the world would have been a better place with neither poor nor beggar, no widow nor orphan, no war nor famine. But, I wonder, what would be our merit, we humans, if we did not show our humanity in the moment of earthquakes, droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, economic crises, etc.?
And that is the case, fortunately. In the worst adversity, I see incredible mutual aid, solidarity, compassion… Yes, I also see thieves and looters. In times of war, I see those who slaughter the innocent, who destroy everything in their path, and, at the same time, I see people who take incredible risks to save lives? Why should I not therefore see in these events and in my own personal problems kind of alert, a reminder that I have perhaps forgotten too much that I’m just passing through here on earth and that it is high time that I prepared for some eternal life after death?
It is man who dared to kill humans. A man killed his brother for a matter of jealousy. That same jealousy is still making war and putting on the road millions of refugees. It is not any deity who burns down hundreds of tons of wheat or throw them into the sea in order to raise prices. It is not any deity who imposed to anyone opting for the nuclear or allowed anyone to exploit people. The air is free for everyone. The sun is free for everyone. Life is free for everyone. Nonetheless, I always have to leave a place for the unexpected; I should always expect a climate-related disaster or a serious economic or social crisis. Pessimism or realism, it doesn't change anything. A good goalkeeper, you know, if we talk about football, must always be on alert even against the smallest team in the world!
