Making Happiness Common

If love is the only thing we have on earth, no soul will starve to death.

When I was 11 years old, I could remember a particular night that I and my siblings were sure of going to bed hungry. I was so starved and broken that I began to cry by the roadside, one of my mother’s friends saw me sobbing profusely and asked me what the problem was.

I narrated our ordeal to her. She went to meet my mom who felt so embarrassed to admit that she was a broke and broken single mother who couldn’t provide dinner for her children.

That night, I and my siblings went to bed well-fed, all thanks to my mom’s friend – she didn’t just give us dinner, there was something about her action that night that made me know that love is all we need to heal the world.

Covid has brought other kinds of pandemic in its wake (unemployment, hunger, mental health issues) and so we need another kind of vaccine. Around the world, more than enough food is produced to feed the global population – yet over 690 million people still go to bed hungry. What could have been the problem? I am sure it’s not about food distribution but greed and corruption.

Hunger is not just the discomfort associated with a lack of food but the distress associated with a lack of love. In our world, we have two tribes of malnourished folks, those suffering from undernutrition and those suffering from overnutrition.

Hunger seems to be the gulf between the greedy and the needy. Food security on the other hand is not just about the availability of food but the affordability and accessibility of food to the global population.

A healthy, hopeful and happy life begins when a person has adequate availability and constant access to nutritious and good food. Our world will be a better place when we don’t have to worry about where the next meal will come from.

We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry -Jimmy Carter

It is often said that a hungry man is an angry man – no doubt, emotional stability is connected to nutritional stability. This reminds me of the Ubuntu story from Africa.

An Anthropologist proposed a fun game to some African children. He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and made the children stand 100 meters away. Then said that whoever reaches first would get all the sweets in the basket.

After he screamed ‘ready, steady, go!’
The children’s action mesmerised him. They all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, shared the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and smiled.

When the Anthropologist asked them why they did so, They answered. “Ubuntu.” Which simply means, “How can one be happy when the others are sad?”
Ubuntu in their language means “I am because we are”. This is a timely and timeless message for all nations and generations, all tongues and tribes and all people in all places – Let’s spread love, hope and joy everywhere.

I ask my friend, how can one be full when others are hungry? Collective prosperity is the only way to achieve world peace. Let’s make kindness common in every way we can. Touch a life today, make someone happy. Heal the world by injecting more love and light into the souls around you.

Let’s have a “Ubuntu” life.

We are apostles of affection
from a healing bloodline
We don’t give to receive
We give to reveal the nature
and the culture of our kingdom.
A kingdom of love and light
with blessings unending.
We are custodians of kindness
and wellsprings of sweetness.
Love is not what we feel or
what we do, love is who we are,
It’s locked in our blood and bones.
We are bred from a loving lineage,
genetically wired to be generous
and configured to be courteous.
We live to give and forgive,
we spread love and speak life
to everyone and everything around us.

Do you believe that we can end hunger in the world? What can be done? Please share your thoughts in the comment section. Thank you for reading.