So, what Does it Really mean to “Enjoy Life?”

By Wr. Gabriel Dinda

I know it’s Friday and you could be on your way out to ‘enjoy life’. But wait!…

In normal circumstances, I am normally at my place by 9pm. Sometimes, though when I travel out of Nairobi or when I am traveling out, I find myself in town later than 9pm. When such occur, I take the chance to observe the city life and make conclusions. Even though such moments are not very many, I get to learn one or two things which I find peculiar to think about. I have always tried to organize to just take one night out, to observe city life, but laziness hasn’t allowed this to come to pass. Perhaps with your company, we can pull something! Mh…

So I recently found myself in City Centre at 3.30am and what I saw kept me thinking. In one instance, I saw a lady with three gentlemen. She couldn’t walk but could talk a lot. So the gentlemen were helping her walk from the area around Afya Centre towards Odeon. As she was being helped, I heard her say some words;’ You people injured me!, you couldn’t think I needed to walk again….F**k all of you…” Her words were not kind, but even the responses of the men weren’t kind either. “Wewe tulia, si ulijileta…”The lady was drunk, totally. The men, however, weren’t as drunk.

And just before I reached Odeon, I again found a lady crying. Next to the stage of Embassava. Her phone had gotten lost as they were raving. She was mad at the boyfriend. “Who bought the drinks…babe who stole the phone…” She struggled to ask.

So as I sat in a mat waiting to go home, I remembered the day before this night. What kind of mood were these people in? I figured out that it might have been electric. For the case of the first lady, she might have been planning with her boyfriend, to go out on a Friday. Or perhaps, the boyfriend was not able to ‘treat’ her during Valentine’s, so the boyfriend would ‘make up for it’ when salary came. So when it came, they all dressed well and left their respective places to ‘treat’ themselves. So perhaps the guy used like 10,000 to ‘treat her’. And by treating her, I mean buying drinks with foreign brands but those which are locally made at Kariobangi’s Light Industry. Those with strong chemical and unchecked ingredients. So that when she drinks, she closes her eyes and takes a moment of silence until the drink passes down her throat, after which she produces a sound like a tractor which has been jump-started, ‘Aaaaaaaaaar! You are the guy!” This, according to them, is part of enjoying life!

While in Campus, I saw another way of ‘enjoying life’. Where a guy makes arrangement to have sex indiscriminately with naïve Campus ladies. The more the ladies, the more the life is being enjoyed. So, in a day, a guy could bundle like two ladies, or even three in a good day. If he succeeded to have raw sex with them (unprotected Sex), then that’s an extremely good day. Because some are stubborn and insist, that he uses a condom, those are like losses to him. Those he terms as ‘bad clients’, those who are not good for business.

In some cases, in marriage, people have also defined ‘enjoying life’ as going out of your way to woo young girls, or seduce young men, to complement the services offered by the partner. All these and many other ways, which you surely know, have been the unanimous societal definition of ‘enjoying life”.

It is funny how we agree on many things, but fail to agree on others. We even have managed to agree that all current politicians are not good for us and should be replaced. We however, haven’t agreed on the definition of ‘enjoying life”

I tend to think that the common definition of ‘enjoying life’ is feeding our bodies with toxic materials, and deliberately looking for virus, infections and other harmful organism for our bodies and smiling about it. This, according to me, is the universal definition which should be embraced. How else would you define it, if it were you? I wonder though, in your own environment, would you take a moment and track the life of someone who embraced this definition of ‘enjoying life’. How are their lives now? Are they that successful?

Now here is where we all agree. In the result of this definition. It doesn’t end anywhere. We all meet at a point of regret. At the instance where one is feeding their bodies with toxins and virus, everything seems grandly sweet, until the toxins start fighting back. That’s when you will see someone withers. That even a body which was once a candidate for a tattoo will then not even be fit for Vaseline. The skin particles become wrinkled, running ahead of their age. When the body fights your definition of ‘enjoying life’, that’s when it becomes clear that you should have redefined the word from the beginning.

Assignment for you? Of course…List down the names of people who are remembered in history, those you know. How were their lives? What are they being remembered for? My memory fails me whether the toughest and roughest rave master in your campus has any records of remembrance. My memory can’t trace whether a husband who managed to cheat on his wife with the highest number of mpangos is documented anywhere.

All in all, it all comes to your own definition, but life has a way of remembering good, remembering Service to God and service to others. Those who fall within this space, have their spaces in history. Those who deviate from this find their ‘happiness’ which later fights back. So yes, I think it is true: happiness is in holiness!

Let’s talk: gdinda@writersguildke.com