A Joyful Proverb

This month’s writing assignment in the Writer’s Ink group I belong to, was a difficult and awkward one.  One of the group heard a very colourful Haitian proverb quoted. Again, each of us had a different take on our topic. One member was able to write a quite a humorous piece!

This is my contribution:

A Joyful Proverb

“We are all walking with our coffins under our arms.”

Images from this Haitian proverb leapt into my mind, the metaphor lost in processions of stunned humanity walking towards their death in WWII Nazi Germany, ‘lookie lou’s’ running way out on beaches emptying as water receded just before the tsunami onslaught in December, 2004 or most recently the climbers on Mount Everest shaken from their perches by the violent Nepalese earthquake. And the riots, marches and protests when individuals of any race, place or time share their participation against towering and powerful foes.

Extreme disasters aside, for my own sense of immediacy, I needed a kinder, gentler approach to this colourful metaphor spoken by Haitian mothers to their children, one that applied to ordinary life/death situations. Death and coffins really have a bad reputation - fear of the unknown comes to mind along with the connotation that no one should ever have to choose their coffin, or have to meet with Death.

That however, is not especially realistic. It is rather arrogant, and futile, to fight against Death as we are all going to participate in that event anyway. So, a kinder and gentler interpretation of this most serious proverb is one of joy. It is interesting that, when I imagine someone speaking of ‘carrying our coffins under our arms’, in my mind the individual is saying it with laughter! And so the twist to this story is not about Death and coffins, but about how we choose to live our lives. The humility with which we live our lives, accepting circumstances as they come, working with circumstance to better our families and communities, determines how light or heavy the ‘coffin under our arm’ will be.

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life, A man 

who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

~ Mark Twain