GOD'S BREATH....(Issue #2)

It was more of obligatory that of a free good willed occurrence that the University would occasionally invite speakers from an assortment of spectra be they politicians, lawyers, international business powerhouses and art icons ranging from poets, orators and even musicians. And on this particular day, Rodrigo Hernandez, a renowned international orator was the speaker down at the school auditorium. Of course Phinehas was well acquitted by who he was. He knew quite too well that he was a reformed hardcore Mexican ruffian whose view over the facets of life was shaped by the rough patches by life itself. As a matter of fact, it was in Phinehas most sinister opinion that the worldwide accredited motivational speaker and orator might have had some of his views misconstrued and totally twisted and that formed Phinehas’ motive of visiting the talk. Something he did once after no little a while.

And so when the brown skinned, tall and handsome man with a round face Mexican walked into the building the whole auditorium erupted in an uninterposable uproar and applause. The round arrogant face suddenly beamed into a meek but seductive smile enveloped in sort of a benign conceited pride. He stopped occasionally to handshake his lovers, fans, apologists and even critics and then finally settled to his seat on the podium.

Silence then embraced the auditorium as facets on the topic of ethics viz a vis religious opinions were analyzed dissected and given back to the audience to marvel and node at. On few occasions, analogies bounced back even to Hernandez himself, and it seemed that he would deduce fresh revelations from the same. A few brilliant souls amidst the students took full charge of the discussion and were thus at the element of exhibiting their prowess in fields of religion, ethics and even irrelevant disciplines as oratory and rhetoric. But just then at the heightened pleasure of intellectual intercourse a rude interjection; foul in intent and steep in knowledge was raised.

Hernandez, in his sea of massive knowledge on freewill and liberalism laid therein a disturbing proposition before all the students. His own view indeed appeared misconstrued despite its simplicity and elaborative substance. However, the root upon which one could fathomably uproot and subdue his argument was unavailable even unto to the brightest of minds in the auditorium. Devoid of reproach he put it across that since the university was an institution of higher learning where all knowledge converged, the subjects; who in this instanced referred to students were thus independent of all notions, idea, ideals and misleading rules that bound them. And for that matter, they were free in their own eyes to do what they deemed fit as long as it quenched their good, and ultimately soother the higher good of everyone.

Until then, Hernandez and his audience seemed to be rowing in the same boat. It was until he made an outright attack at the university's board authority, that the auditorium was divided sharply in opinion. Mentioning the legalization of public display of affection in a Catholic sponsored institution was like saying yes to pork intake amidst devoted arabians. He too knew quite well that his instantiation of the freewilled community would not land on a cushioned audience. And so he asked, "Do you not suppose that there lies an element of self contradiction within the authorities over the common objectivity of an institution of higher which is to create freewilled and independent citizens?".

Now, for a couple of minutes murmurs rented the auditorium until when the address system conveyed a deep bariton voice, that though husky and mildly rough seemed tender and authoritative. It was not the dean ordering the students to hush up but Phinehas. "Listen everyone to what I am going to say keenly." Some whimsical kid at the lower end of the auditorium was shivering with anticipation, the loose bowelled ladies in the hall rushed out for a call of nature and the heavily built men put their arms between their thighs and bowed their heads ready to listen.

"Much thanks to Mr. Hernandez for taking his time to come all the way to this place to talk to us. And even my humblest gratitude bows to the sacrifise you have made to come all the way to Africa to confuse us the more." Laughter and cat calls began to rise. "Silence!" He boomed.

"When you come all the way to a developing continent and try to mis-configure the in-adultrated minds, the future workmanship of this continent into what you know quite well to an unsound avenue of handling humanity, you not only endanger the formidability of a prospective progress but also your intergrity as a human." The bright student's were now sniffing in utter confusion as they watched this student, who had momentarily turned into an angry god, spewing words out in wrath and dominion.

"I am not a catholic by creed. But I strongly believe in the existence of a higher and all knowing deity. And even if I knew not of God, nature itself bears codes, laws and precepts against which our instincts dares not perform a breach. Being in the African Bergen College, I stumbled into the reality that all freedom and its avenues bear one hub, one truth which is massive and bears no other subsidiaries that conglomerate to form it. And due to its massiveness, their lies many ways of accessing it. But still the end result is one."

He breathed out loud into the microphone and the crowd seemed to breath in tension with. He pulled on, "When I project a romantic display to a member of an alien gender than mine, be it hugging, kissing or fondling, I only but achieve a selfish goal. I quench my lust. And I then intensify the pleasure in others, maybe on-lookers, or passers-by."

Just then the dean arose and tried to signal him to keep to keep quiete but he went on talking amidst cheers, astonishments and approval from everyone. "The on-looker so to speak then has their person wired and aligned into pursuing the same action with the notion that it would bring them happiness. They may not really go and grab themselves someone openly, but may resort into means that would accord them the illusion they so think fitted what they saw. Well, statistically, the happiness they receive is proven to have always been shortlived. In essence it is never true happiness. What then Mr. Hernandez would you term a freedom that results into superficial happiness but not true happiness?" He posed the question, looked around the auditorium and walked out, not waiting for the answer.

The dean was outraged, Hernandez bowed in defeat for the first time and so much longed to meet his antagonist face to face. Never in his life had he been met by such a sharp, rude, clever yet true argument. Leaving the argument aside, even the speaker seemed to hold everyones heart in his hands and as he tilted to and from his points though not veering away, the audience too moved with. He seemed to be, in his eyes a holder of a highly accredited premium honorary in speech and rhetoric from one of the Greeks' university. But who really was this boy? He purposed to inquire from the dean as soon as the rowdy students now celebrating in the streets with Phinehas' name calmed down. He trailed not far behind, and even in his soul he did not feel humiliated but elated that he had found a new bud, whose sprouting he so much bore the patience to witness.