The Candle and The Sun

Another sundown in a small village in a third world country finds the boys running after the football made from plastic bags collected from the village garbage heap. Their aim is to send the ball behind the two rocks mounted to mimic goal posts on either side of the small space their call their football field. If they are lucky, one team will send the ball zooming past the two stones before it becomes completely dark but if they are unlucky, another boy will yet again mistake the stone for the ball and be off this field for weeks.

As they call for ball and run after it, they are oblivious of the fading light from the sun that is now casting a beautiful grotesque of their shadows behind them. There is no referee in this game, it is just some boys enjoying a good game with a set of unsupervised rules. Everybody knows what the rules are and though they occasionally break into a light argument, it is their undying friendship and love for the game that sees them back to this field every evening after school.

Some of them hope to one day become professional soccer players but for others, it is just a way of passing time and passing time they do. Before anyone can kick the rock, their mothers start yelling out their names from the distant grass-thatched houses they call home. This village has no electrical connection of any kind. Some homes run on small portable and rechargeable lights that they take with them to town each morning and charge in their places of work. Those who cannot afford these battery lights use different kerosene lamps but with the community clinician warning them of the dangers these lamps pose on their health, some have been trying alternatives.

One family has no kerosene on this night and as the last embers of the fire they used to prepare their supper die, they reach out for a candlestick to light it on the fireplace in a bid to save at least one matchstick for tomorrow. This has happened thousands of times across the generations and although they dream of one day living in electrified gated communities in self-contained houses, most of these villagers have never seen a toilet seat. This has been their life and anything else is just a dream.

After the evening prayers, it is bedtime for all. Nobody cares to switch off the small stub left from the candlestick they had broken into two pieces to serve two nights. As they each slip into the safety of their dreams or the nightmares  that haunt their sleep, the candle light flickers in the small room that has sheltered the family of nine as if itself saying a prayer.

The flickering of this light in the otherwise dark room seems to be writing a letter to someone in some sort of Morse code. “Dear Sun, it has been just a few hours since you stopped shining for the day in my village. In that short time these people seemed to remember my worth. I feel so worthless living with this family. With you shining out there for hours in the day I am cast away into oblivion only to be remembered when it is darkest. They do not value me for who I am. No, they only use me when they need to and throw me away as soon as you start shining.

I know that I can never measure up to your glory but at least you get to experience different parts of the world. I have always wondered how you do it, shining throughout without exhaustion while I can only shine for a few minutes. Often too, I have asked myself where you go every evening. Have you ever been to America? I don’t think they would have any use for me in a developed country but you… The Americans and Europeans can’t get enough of you. I see them at candlelit dinners in the Savannah and hear them talking of how they came to enjoy the Sun. How painful it is for me to hear them talking in my presence praising you while enjoying my light. None of them seems to care for me as I waste away trying to make their vacation romantic. They only remember you even though they have to wear sunscreen to protect themselves from your glory.

How I have longed to be like you serving all but a master of all, choosing where to shine and where not, traveling the world and changing seasons. I think you must enjoy so much being the most powerful of all creation with a glory that people can’t even stare at. Oh, I hate the staring. I see people, old and young stare right into my soul as if they empathize with my suffering only to let me die. It is such an ugly life to live knowing that people will only use you and dump you. They don’t care about you but only what they can get from you while you shine. It is like…” Before he could finish, the candle dims away never to see another night.

In the morning, someone throws away the remains of the candle outside in the garbage heap. There in the dirt the sun rays finally get to the candle’s remains to give a reply to the emotional letter. “Dear Candle, I have heard you and I can’t quite say I understand your suffering but I have a few words of wisdom. God in His infinite wisdom created all of us for a reason. It is something called destiny. The destiny of each of us is to solve one or more problems in the world. To some I solve the problem of cold and to others the problem of darkness. Some get to benefit from my light but not my heat. That is my destiny to them. I do not consider myself to be a supreme creation. No, my friend. I just shine. Contrary to what you may have come to believe, I do not go anywhere at night. The world comes to me when they need me. I stay where I am and just shine. My destiny is to shine and so I shine. I do not choose where to shine and where not to. I just shine. I do not choose how bright to shine. I just give it my all.

I cannot worry over all the problems in the world, I only focus on those I can solve: the ones I was created to solve. The firstborn will never solve the problems of the last-born. If you are born the only child in your family, it can be said that you were born to solve the problem of having a child. If another had been born before you, you would not have been born because the problem would have already been solved. If you are the only girl among your siblings, you may have been born to solve the problem of having a girl. If another girl had been born before you… Each of us exists to solve certain problems. Therefore, you must never say that you are being used. That is exactly why God created you. God created the problems and then you for you to solve them. You are only important as long as the problem you were created to solve exists or because of the problems you have solved. If there was no darkness neither you nor I would have been created. Our importance is subject to the presence of a problem we can solve.

Do not hate your problems. Love them. They make you important. Without problems we are all useless. It is the problems we face in life that bring out our value. If men would fly, they wouldn’t need vehicles or planes. That is why birds and fish will never invent vehicles and planes. They simply don’t face the same problems as men. Love your problems, again I say. Light is only important where there is darkness. It cannot complain that darkness is using it. Picture this; with all my glory, there are still some light issues I cannot solve. Nobody thinks that sunshine is romantic. No, they only find it romantic when staring at sunset. They find me more attractive when they are about to lose me. Candlelit dinners will never be replaced by sunbathing. Each of them solves a different problem. Do not compete with those who were created to solve different problems. Just shine when it is your time to shine. You can’t marry all women, there is only one whose problems are yours to solve.

The world is full of darkness even though the sun never loses its strength. In the middle of sunshine there is a person whose soul is as black as coal. The world is a dark place. A thousand suns would not give it enough light because its darkness comes from deep within the souls of men. A candle in the heart of every man would light the world in a way that a million suns couldn’t. There are people losing hope everywhere in the light and in darkness because the sun can’t shine everywhere. In the souls of men I can’t shine. What they need there is a small candle of hope. That is your domain my friend. You can shine in people’s hearts. You can give them light when I cannot. It may not be as bright as my light but sometimes what people need is just a faint light to give them hope. You were created to inspire hope in people. Just a small light that can change destinies. You don’t need to be glorious to be great, you only need to be great at what you were created to do.

Bottom line, do not think at all that people are using you. Take it as your golden opportunity to show the world what you are made of. However short-lived your reign is, make the most impact in it and leave a mark in this world. Truth be told, whoever you are in life, nobody needs you without a problem you can solve. We are all being used: to solve the problems we exist to solve. Whenever you get an opportunity to be used, do it gladly and use it to light up as many faces as you can before your time is over.”