Sometimes last year, a group of friends, one of them Eric, my brother and friend went for a hike at Ngong Hills. They were attacked by thugs and in the process he sustained head injuries and he lost an eye. Last week on friday night, on 24th June 2011, Eric and his dad were driving back to Nairobi from Namanga. They were waylaid by thugs and were atacked. They both sustained head injuries. Eric is on the verge of losing his sight. The doctors say they have done all they could and unless a miracle happens…

When we imagine such a story, if we were in his shoes, we would be crumbling. Personally, I don’t know how I would handle it. But the most amazing thing is, he is very positive about it. He is so positive that if you go visit him in his hospital bed, you will leave the hospital bed inspired, feeling stronger. This has made me wonder, why is he so positive about it? Does he know something I dont? Doesnt he care?

Then I remebered the sermon from last sundays mass, the Corpus Christi Sunday-2011. There are two aspects of each and every thing on this world, living or non living, the accidents and the substance. Accidents are those parts of us that we can live without, for instsnce, a hand, a leg, an eye, a kidney, among others. Substance is that which we cannot live without, that which defines us, that which makes us us, that which makes timber timber, or a cow a cow, without which it would be a carcass and we would be corpses. That which when we lose we are baptized other names instantly, we cease being Judy, caroline, Duncan or Eric, we become “The late” or “Marehemu”.

We lay so much importance to our accidents; how we look, how we dress, how we walk, how much money we have, who we shake hands with, so much that we leave out the substance. We are so attached that we can never define our substance. Actually when we are asked to define people, we define them mostly by their accidents, but is tha really who those people are? I believe Eric has learnt to detatch himself from the Accidents and concentrate on the substance. Which we, who are still mourning the loss of his eyes are still attached to.

Its time for us to let go. Eric remains, Eric. The son, the brother, the boyfriend, and a friend to so very many is still Eric. May we learn to detach from the accidents and build the substance that we will be accountable for when the time comes for our accidents to be separated from our substance. 

Thanks Eric, for being an inspiration to loads and loads of peopl