Ashes for ashes: When time is up!

By Oladotun O. Fadeyiye

Today is indeed a memorable one for the families of Madiba and Paul Walker of ‘Fast and Furious’ star actor. They are both laid to rest and committed to mother earth respectively in their home countries. One out of many reasons, that prompted me to come up with this rather gloomy blog, is what these two personalities have in common, they are both famous for something. They are celebrities in their class. They did affect lives positively while alive, even though their lifetime achievements are not thesame when measured, due to the age difference, this takes me to another reason why I came up with this blog.
It has occurred to me that death is no respecter of age. When God says your time is up! then you have no option. It is inevitable. It doesn’t matter whether you are old or young, celebrity or nonentity, President or common man, it is a price humanity has to pay.
Now, let us look at them individually, Madiba as he was fondly called by Africans, lived a fulfilled life fighting for the right cause and justice for the blacks in South Africa, having spent 27 out of 95years of his life in prison for what he believed in, earned him a lifelong and unusual respect across the world. He has been called ‘a fountain of wisdom, a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope for all those fighting for a just and equitable world order’. He was loved by many, Madiba’s achievements really endeared him to all races, causacians, indians, Arabians as well as Europeans.
Paul Walker, on his part, became famous as the lead actor of ‘fast and furious’, This particular movie has endeared him more to his teeming fans across the world, particularly car freak individuals, those who love automobile would surely love to see ‘fast and furious’ movie over and over again, because it is an action packed! As a matter of fact, when the news of his autocrash came, many would have thought he was the driver of the Porsche car that killed him considering the role he played in the movie ‘fast and the furious’ but unfortunately he was not behind the wheels, it was his friend Roger, who drove. The saddest news of his death, was his only daughter who had just moved in with him, it was gathered that the poor girl had lived with her mother since infancy but decided to move in with her father some weeks, before the death snatched him away! How disheartening!
When I was pondering on the life they both lived, I realized Madiba lived a fulfilled and long life while Paul Walker’s life was cut off in his prime, at age 40. Should we rather say God is unfair to Paul? Capital No! That is just the irony of life! It is for us to learn and live meaningful lives at every second of our days. We should always bear it at back our minds that we are not the owner of our soul, we might seem like the owner of our body now but without spirit and soul, body will surely become lifeless and the owner of the soul (God) might just decide to take it anytime he wishes!