Dear Editor,
When you read “Ian on Sunday’ published every Sunday in Stabroek News, you are transmitted to another universe, away from the double-dealing and necessary politics of the day, the cut and thrust of everyday life in Guyana, to a special place for introspection on the meaning of life and its challenges. To paraphrase Marcus Aurelius – we are on a lifelong journey to decipher opinion from fact and perception from reality.
In the writings of Ian McDonald, we can find the conundrums of life, the importance of valuing wisdom over knowledge and it causes us to pause and research the acumen he conveys that will allow us to advance to the next day as better individuals, enriched with hope and belief in our fellow man.
Lately, Ian has been writing often about time and life, not out of fear of the inevitable that awaits us in this maelstrom called life. But in a reflective and thoughtful manner, as a tutor trying to share with his students, life experiences, the importance of family, love, friendship and reading – and for him I dare say not necessarily in that order.
After reading his column ”Intimations of Immortality” in his April 10, 2016 column, I thought of one of Seneca’s great works, called “The Shortness of Life” and the insight Seneca shared on time and life, an extract follows:
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it.”
Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest and certainly the most cherished of roman emperors, in what is probably the most remarkable and thought provoking series of personal writings on life and living; aptly called Meditations; instructed us “Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else… Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.”
Thinking of our time on this earth, an earth filled with its plateaus, mountains, plains, and hills and never ending trials and tests; regardless of how long we live and travel, we can never fully embrace and understand a small fraction of the physical and mental constructs of life, even if we live what is considered a full life. Lyrics from the song ‘If I only had time” by the New Zealander singer, John Rowles, which is filled with yearning emotion and a longing for more time – is an antithesis to the views expressed by Seneca, Aurelius and I suspect of Ian. As we humans are apt to keep dreaming and longing for more, the cycle never ends. What we need is contentment and a little ambition.
Oscar Wilde, the Irish playwright, poet and author is quoted as saying “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” This observation emphasizes, human nature in all its fragilities.
Mr. McDonald has over the decades shown us the way to converse with the great philosophers, and scholars, over the millenniums past. It has been a wonderful and fulfilling experience and we soldier on in this game of life, where reading should always take centre stage, even when the curtains are coming down, as Ian so fittingly portrays.
Happy birthday Ian! I don’t know you personally, yet you have taught us so much, like great writers and thinkers often do – from a distance.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
