The skies would be dancing with color, people in the streets would be singing in the loudest voices they could manage and the “Happy New Year!” wishes would fill the air. These days it’s seldom you see tens of thousands out in the streets and squares smiling, dancing and making merry. Nice, wouldn’t you say? But somewhere in the world there would a couple of guys who amidst all the merry making try to hit the nail its head.
A:- I wish you a very Happy New Year!”
B:- Me too. Happy New Year to you and your beloved ones.
They look around all what’s happening around them the minutes continue ticking away. Little by little the amusement gets somewhat less noisy as people start going to their homes. After there is home! And at home lf awaits them with its many old and newer changeless and fewer delights, the delights might come in the form of the dinner table being full for yet another night. Out two guys regain their voices and continue talking in somber mood.
B:-You know, I find what transpires here a little…how can I put it, a little ironical. What do you think?
A:-Well, before I tell you what I think you have to explain to me what you mean by ironical.
B:-Not much explaining needed. What I was trying to say is that we are celebrating lives we aren’t actually leading. At least most of us aren’t leading lives that make as amused as we seem to be.
A:-And that makes us ineligible to have some good time?
B:-Despite all the troubles we’re going through in our lives?
A:-Despite those and much more.
B:-Before answering, or trying to answer, your question about being ineligible would you mind if I throw a question?
A:-You can throw as many questions as you wish.
B:-That’s the kind of confidence I like.
A:-As many questions as you wish even though I might not answer ninety-nine of your hundred questions.
B:-That would be alright with me. Anyways, are we really having a nice time here? Or to put it in another way are we really as happy as our smiles and dances suggest?
A:-Hit them with the hardest questions first! That’s what you, my good friend is doing.
B:-Yes that’s what me, your good friend’s doing. Would you be kind enough to answer my question?
A:-Look I don’t want to sound philosophical. The last time I tried to be philosophical I ended up under the bus.
B:-And who threw you under it?
A:-My new beautiful girlfriend, who else! Maybe I was trying to impress her when I said there are philosophers’ who would describe her beauty as illusion and not reality. She dumped me right then and there. (Laughter) To answer your question wouldn’t you say the concept of having a nice time is subjective? I mean there might be some common denominators, but there are also our own specific meanings of having a nice time.
B:-I’m not talking about our out-on-the-town nights or our two-thousand birr per kilo weekend raw meat adventures. I am talking about such events as New Year eve.
A:-Well, you’re losing me. Having a nice time is having a nice time eve or no eve!
B:-It isn’t as simple as that. Here amidst these tens of thousands of people I think we aren’t being ourselves.
A:-And what are we being?
B:-We’re being what we think the public would like us to be. Even our smiles aren’t naturally generated though we might think they are real. If we are seen frowning in the midst of so much smile and glee we would end up outcasts. Now about you losing me, I hope I pulled you back.
A:-No way; in fact you pushed me even farther.
B:-And why do you think I pushed you rather than pulling you?
A:-I’ve been telling you to go it easy on this Osho, Sartre and the like stuff. I think you got what you just said from one of those nerds who probably had too much spare time to spend.
B:-You don’t like philosophy, do you?
A:-I hate it! Look what is happening in our life these days needs no philosophical intervention. By philosophizing you wouldn’t fill the empty spaces on my family’s dinner table. It is either there or it isn’t.
B:-I’m not trying to philosophize. Look the other day you were telling me hundred kilos of teff going for fourteen thousand birr there is no way you could satisfy your family’s needs as you used to.
A:- Correct; and they’ve accepted the fact.
B:-That’s nice; many don’t. What I’m trying to say is that when you return to your house the half full mesob of injera would still be half full. And of course there’s that uneasy air hanging over your household because of the many financial problems that resulted from the steep rise in the cost of living. Did I miss something here?
A:- No, you didn’t.
B:- Then my question since the smile would leave you face and the frown returns when you return home, it means your amusemt and smile are temporary.
A:- I wouldn’t deny that.
B:- That’s why I am trying to tell you that at this place we aren’t our real selves but what we probably would like to be.
A:- What’s wrong with that?
B:- Aha! Now you’re getting what I’ve been trying to say.
A:- And you’ve trying to say…
B:- Our having a nice time is not the real reflection of our internal feelings and our actual lives but about the lives we would have liked to enjoy. How about that?
A:- You never cease to amaze me. Why do you have to dig so deep into things and spoil the good feeling of the hour?
B:- That’s not my intention.
A:- I know it isn’t. But I think the important aspect you miss here is that however hard the lives of people are, however backbreaking and unbearable the burdens of daily life might be on them and their families people have every right to do things that, even if for minutes, frees them from the daily torment and have a good time. I don’t think you should have a full dinner table and 24/7 smiles in the house to enjoy happiness and serenity wherever and wherever they get it.
B:- You really are talking now, aren’t you?
A:- Yes I am! Don’t think I’m blaming you of anything. But then as long as there isn’t foul play, as long as no social values have been abused a few minutes of smile and joy here and there when the opportunities arise is good for the soul and has nothing to do with the number of dishes on the table. End of discussion. Can we join the crowd now?
B:- Yes, we can.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 31 DECEMBER 2023