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Just a little hill: memorializing Joseph Adebisi Adeboye
A Rosicrucian mystic whose name I could not readily recall as at the time of writing this piece, sometime wrote an inspirational article titled,”just a little hill”. In that mystical and cosmic -inspired contemplation, he had impressed that, every being has a mission in life. Whichever way we may interpret it, our life must be impactful and purposeful even as it is governed by the law of reciprocal action and reinforced by the law of reincarnation or life after life. In our strife for wealth, power,fame, and other material things, we all aim to be mountain. This lofty goal has ironically ruined some people who see life ambitions as do or die , while unto some have been given the grace to truly emerge as mountains in their cosmic or self imposed mission of life . Thus, far and near, they protrude . The author of this article, equally realized that , there exist limitations and inhibitions which prevent everyone from emerging as a mountain. But he sees a possibility: if you can not be a mountain , you can be ” just a little hill”. No matter where we may be sight seeing it, a hill is not also an obscure elevation, it is just a little lower than a mountain.
This latter description indeed,captures the struggles and essence of the life of my late father, Prince Joseph Adebisi Adeboye who passed away on 22nd October,2004, twenty years ago. Every year we your children remember you and celebrate the virtues of life you impacted on us: hard work, honesty, contentment , loyalty in friendship, godliness, humility and selflessness. In your life as a public servant, a community leader and as a true son of Arutu blue blood of Ila-orangun , Osun state, you remain a hill upon which we your children. and grandchildren are building to turn to mountain through modest and quiet services to God and humanity,
Our father who art in heaven, you are not dead, you are very much alive. In marking this second decade of your transition, let me dwell in meditation on the subject matter of death a phenomenon many fear and some see at times, as punishment for their enemies or the ones they hate, and over which millions are sad and cry when it occurs to our beloved ones,
What is death? According to that mystical book,Unto Thee I grant, The Economy of Life,'” death is the test of our lives, the essay which shows the standard of all our actions.” As Heraclitus has seen it, it is birth into another world or life. Death is birth, birth is death, It is sleep in between two realms –heaven and earth, It is the key to the portal of the co-joined earthly and heavenly planes of existence which is inevitably smithed for every soul yearning for perfection. Here in lies the beauty and profundity of the letter of consolation written by Benjamin Franklin in 1756 to Elizabeth Hubbart following the death of a relation.I lay bare the condolence missive here in full:
“Dear Child,
I condole with you, we have lost a most dear and valuable relation, but it is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; ’tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? A new member added to their happy society? We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God—when they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure—instead of an aid, become an incumbrance and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way. We ourselves prudently choose a partial death. In some cases a mangled painful limb, which cannot be restored, we willingly cut off. He who plucks out a tooth, parts with it freely since the pain goes with it, and he that quits the whole body, parts at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases it was liable to, or capable of making him suffer.
Our friend and we are invited abroad on a party of pleasure—that is to last for ever. His chair was first ready and he is gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and we know where to find him. Adieu.”
Let it be said as the above mystical book has asked and answered rytorically: “what will you be found doing if overtaken by death ? It ought to be for something noble, If we shall die nobly,then our vices must die before us. Happy is that man who ends the business of his life before his death comes and who when the hour comes, he has nothing to do but to die,”Although we would have loved you to be around for more years, however,” that the longest life is not the happiest life ” is not lost on us.May your soul progress in greater cosmic illumination and peace profound dad.
Dr. Adebisi writes from Elizade University Ilara-mokin, Ondo state
