Kedo Peseyie
Mr. Caleb was an ordinary office-goer. But unlike the others he was rather regular and usually on time. On a regular working day he would set out for office at half past nine. Strictly speaking, that is the time he should be sitting in the office clearing the papers. (But anyway, that’s another story for another time.) And so by 9:45 he would be walking past the big grocery shop, then the book store, then the pan shop, then the local butcher shop until he came by the big church building. (Houses, shops, churches and offices are pretty jumbled up here, but anyway, that’s another story again). By the time he crossed the church building it was already 10 AM, and he usually reached his office by 10:15. He hardly took the bus because he disliked the smell. He didn’t smell particularly good himself, but what he disliked was the smell of pan and smoke. And so he usually walked. Though he also disliked the smell of petroleum and diesel burning from the passing vehicle, those were less irritable than the smell on the bus. He had been walking this route for almost thirty years now. He was now so used to the street that without any pedestrians on the street, he could walk through it with his eyes closed. And so he walked without checking the path below his feet. Nothing has changed much on the street except some new shops and several street lights. But the street itself had never changed. He loathed the walk to office. The only motivation that kept him going every morning was the salary at the end of every month.
On Monday morning he set out for work again at 9:30 am. There was nothing particularly different about that morning. He saw a bus but decided to walk. He came by the grocery which was half open, then the butcher shop with no meat, then the ever lively pan shop, then he saw the book store was closed. Those were really not unusual, though not very frequent. He had seen that happen before. But he did notice that there were very less people on the street that morning. And as he came by the side of the church gate at 10 AM, he felt that he was walking on something very soft, like cotton. No it was softer than cotton. It was like smoke, like walking on thick smoke (If any one of you know how that feels like). He looked down to see what was happening and he discovered that he was actually walking three feet off the ground. He as so shocked that he jumped and he went up another 7 feet off the ground. But he continued walking because he was afraid that if he stopped, he would fall down to the ground and hurt himself. So he continued walking until he reached so high up. He was walking so fast that he no longer felt he could stop himself. It was almost as if a force was taking him up.
“There is only one explanation,” he thought. “I am dead and the Angels are taking me up.” He continued up and finally came upon a man who did not look like an Angel. “I am dead, aren’t I?” asked Mr. Caleb. “No you aren’t dead,” said the man in the clouds. “We only brought you up here to give you a view of your world from up here. We will send you back after we are finished.”
“Why do I need a view from above? I could do without all these scary experiences. At my age it could kill me!”
“You do need a view from above. The problem with you is that you see things only in the horizontal. And the thing horizontal of you is also the thing opposite to you. And I know this sounds rather stupid even to you, but now you see everything in the opposite and your view has turned topsy-turvy. This shouldn’t be.”
So firstly, the man took Mr. Caleb to the cloud above his private residential house. Mr. Caleb never realized that his house was so big and so unshapely seen from above. And he noticed that the fencing around his house was cutting into the entrance of his longtime neighbor. And from above, he could also clearly see a huge heap of garbage on the other side of the fence where a road was. That was the garbage he had conveniently dumped for years over his fence.
Mr. Caleb now knew what the intention of his guide was. But he was not willing to admit his fault so easily. “Hey, it’s not as bad as you think it is. From below it looks perfectly OK. And besides everyone else is doing it!”
The man replied, “Didn’t I say that is exactly your problem. You see things only with the horizontal view. If you never look up, or even try to imagine how the view would be from up here, you will never be able see the connection of earthly things with heavenly things. You will never see the value of boundaries stones in its right place. It’s like a triangle with equal sides. When the horizontal line is moved away from its proper place, the vertical line is also affected and the whole triangle is distorted. May be you can try setting the triangle back to its proper shape when you go back. We up here are very particular about the proper shapes and sizes of things.” The man also led Mr. Caleb to his church building. To his surprise he saw that the view of his church from above was also slightly disproportionate and unshapely.
Then the man led Mr. Caleb to a place where several men appeared to be fighting. Looking from above, only the hair on their heads and their shoulders were visible. They could not even identify which one was taller and which one was shorter. But by their broad shoulders, black coats and sparse hairs, Mr. Caleb could see that they were public leaders and politicians. “You cannot recognize them because you don’t see their faces. You don’t even see which is taller. But the funny thing is that they are fighting over which one of them is the tallest. And when they have finally agreed on who is the tallest, they will try and make him shorter again but cutting him into pieces. It’s true. These are all the crazy things that happen when the only view they have is a horizontal view. They see only short people and tall people, tall buildings and short buildings. But you see, it doesn’t make any difference at all seen from up here.”
Next, the man led Mr. Caleb to a place where he was shown the most unusual sight of that morning. He saw a man embracing his dog and kissing his computer and TV and mobile phone one after the other. He was the ordinary man on the street lost in his revelries and the counting of his little possessions. “Here is the man who has lost complete touch with the clouds above him. He has not looked up for many years now and has never even tried to imagine how a view from above would be like. His relationships in life starts with himself, then it goes downwards to his dog, then his computer, his TV and onto to smaller things like his mobile phone. He thinks that’s the way his priorities should be ordered. He is actually a renowned man down there. But from up here this is how he looks—pathetic!”
Mr. Caleb had seen enough. He didn’t feel like going back after what he had seen. He was still not sure what it is that he was supposed to learn that day. But the man said, “Go down and it will finally dawn on you”. He didn’t know how he came down again. But when he reached the gate of the church from where he was first taken up, he checked his watch and found that it was still exactly 10 AM. He pinched himself and realized he was not dreaming.
Then as he walked the street again, he felt like it was his first time walking that street. He noticed the flowers on the side, the butterflies floating up, the clouds above, and the trees whispering fresh air into his nostrils. His street suddenly came alive. He looked up and saw no one. But he knew someone was up there, for he could still hear the voice.
Then he looked up once more and it finally dawned on him. Man’s primary relationship is not downwards with animals, machines and material things. These downward relationships only make a man dread his work and despise his brother. If there was one thing he learned that morning, it was that man’s primary relationship and obligation is upward toward his Creator. That was the only thing he realized that morning. But that was enough to bring life and enthusiasm back into his otherwise ordinary work and predictable life.
