“We all need to hold on to something, Benji.”
— the stranger in the lifeboat, Mitch Albom.
Just the way God, or someone that happened to be called “God” in the raft, told Benji in his middle struck between life and death.
Yes, we do. Don’t we?
At least when life has become hazardously threatening us, for the moment that the mark between life & death was only determined by the edge of raft.. when you were surrounded by the mysterious large ocean, its quiet yet uncanny wave, its unexpected harmful creatures beneath.. the idea of holding on to something was rather more than just crucial & necessary. It’s the last breath we could inhale to survive, to be alive. When no other things matter. At least those were what Benji and other Galaxy survivors had to experience.
Money has no significant use here. So does the wealth we have always thirsted for. The wealth that had usually been their clothes. To be seen. To be respected. To be served by people. As if they would come all the way across the sea to rescue. They barely have power unless humans capitalize on them. The remains of us were always the hope. We breathe it as we’re busy praying to God. The only One we are supposed to be holding on to. Even since when “things” still matter. We do not have to wait to experience the life Benji has endured for so long to believe in God and His plan, sincerely and thoroughly. Do we?
Sometimes it’s when we hit rock bottom that we finally realize. We live in a glamorous world, where money becomes our goal. No blame, it’s something we could clearly see with our limited eyes. I have been there too. Back and forth. Having a strong desire for money then burying it down to develop it again the chance later. Yet, through this complete reading of the book, I got myself a conscious alert. The book helps me to capture the meaningful point of this life, the significant part that I often neglect to take care of. The faith. The concrete implementation of faith.
Had we not forgotten to include this essential part of our daily struggles, tranquility may have taken place to grow inside the broken soul, overcoming any obstacles neither with mumbling nor holding a grudge. It afterward transforms the self to portray success as a balance in intentionally chasing the temporary to reach actual prosperity in the hereafter.
Mitch Albom, thank you for this book. You have always reminded me of something beautiful about life and death. You narrated the story as if I could watch it near the ocean. Or observing over the sky blue, mimicking the sea birds. Or I might be a piece of seawater, disguised within the group of waves, tossing around the orange raft side to side. Thus I can feel the deep pain, endless sorrow, and undefinable despair all the passengers suffered a couple of days in the lifeboat. I suffered with them. Until they met their own destiny, respectively.
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Let me tell myself again.
Indeed, we should have to rely on something, bigger than us, greater than the world and what’s in, whose love could not be any less & equal to be given to all creatures, and that only refers to — Allah.
