By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
We have an independence to celebrate tomorrow, Monday 1 June 2020.
Is it worth celebrating?
Of course it is but you would expect that to come from the heart whereas the mind is a different story .
The mind is the more practical one with the application of its powers of reasoning to reach a logical conclusion.
The heart is a bundle of emotions that is stubborn and will shut out whatever logic the mind may venture to counsel.
The mind will reason that we are still locked down in a fight that is literally ‘do or die’ to keep a deadly virus from reaching our healthy shores.
We have been successful so far but the mind keeps shooting off alert warnings, ‘for how long’?
When our flag of independence is raised at Mulinu’u tomorrow the heart will celebrate.
While the ‘Samoa Tula’i’ anthem is played, it will flutter alongside the flag as it slides slowly up to the top of the pole.
As the police guard of honour salutes it will do so too when it snaps to attention.
All the while, the virus warning of the mind continues to niggle, ‘for how long.’?
We have 146 of our citizens and residents held in quarantine for the next 14 days, after stranding in New Zealand where the coronavirus is already present.
Over a thousand more of our stranded kinsmen are following in the coming weeks. Whenever a new group arrives the ‘for how long’ warning becomes louder and louder.
Hopefully the emotional heart takes another beat a little sooner. Instead of a worried tempo, it is a thumping one of triumph to celebrate the discovery of a cure or treatment for the deadly coronavirus.
The heart always tends to be more positive and hopeful. Being a realist, the mind becomes too pragmatic to be swayed by any mushy notions of the sentimental ticker.
As the eternal battle of these two forces of our character wrestles for our attention and final decision where do we go from here?
The simple and more practical compromise is to stay home. Watch the replays from past celebrations and reflect firstly on the occasion.
Our gratitude is to our forefathers! Independence is a moment they made possible for all generations of Samoans, past, present and future.
We have to reflect on where we are and where our generation fits in as we continue to evolve with our sovereignty.
The challenge for our forefathers was to win our freedom to rule on our own. When they departed they entrusted to us that legacy we have to keep alive and strong for the next generations to continue.
Every year when we celebrate our independence we are doing just that.
We are passing our sovereign baton to the next generation as it has been done from the time of our forefathers.
Maybe the heart in this case is doing what it was created to do. The mind has our feet firmly planted in the hard realities of life so there has to be a missing influence that we have not accounted for.
There is always supposed to be a balance in life.
We see that all around us as the pendulum of living swings from one extreme to another in search of that balance.
The question is where can that be found and whatever could that be?
Today is a Sunday. Lets all pray on that.
Happy 58th Anniversary Samoa