Wangari Maathai's Epilogue : Canopy Of Hope

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

Have you ever been to an accustomed setting only to realize it's not as well known to you as you thought it was? For example, you go to a close friend or relative house and it’s far too familiar but you can’t remember where the dishes are stored, where the T.V remote is always kept or even a situation where you don’t remember the family acting a particular way from previous times you were there. This is what occurs in the two short stories “The Return” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh. In these two short stories both of the protagonists, Kamau (“The Return”) and Kien (“A Marker on the Side of the Boat”), both return to a familiar place only to realize it is not what they remembered and has become

“Yes, he thought breather deeply, I will no longer try to escape from Siddhartha. I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha.” (Page 32)

“What could I say to you that would be of value except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” (113) Siddhartha, a book written by Hermann Hesse, is about this young boy who throughout the book grows to an old man who, throughout his journey, seeks to attain enlightenment. He comes from a Brahmin family and later decides to become a samana and lives in the woods with his “shadow”,Govinda. Siddhartha is distracted with obstacles throughout his life and ultimately finds a way to conquer them.

When you hit rock bottom, it becomes extremely difficult to get back up. The moment you do get up though, your life changes forever. In the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, the protagonist Siddhartha finds himself contemplating suicide after experiencing a series of unfortunate events. He has to dig deep to get himself out of the situation and afterwards he gets caught within deep, remorseful thoughts. He finds a river and is reminded of what his original goal was and because he was on a journey to enlightenment he was able to be reminded of the spiritual muttering “om.” This moment is pivotal because Siddhartha is finally able to find his Self again.

Therefore, the desire to return to my past and my need for separation, creates a conflict of hopelessness and hope within me, that leaves the question, 'is there a fork in the path of

The two boys leave the town to join the Samanas, a group of people who believe that spiritual enlightenment comes with the rejection of body and all other needs. The boys quickly realize that their ideas of the group are very different, Govinda loves the way that improvements that he has gained spiritually and morally. While Siddhartha has yet to reach the spiritual enlightenment that he wishes to achieve. “Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas; he learned many ways of losing the Self. He traveled along the path of self-denial through pain, through voluntary suffering and conquering of pain, through hunger, thirst and fatigue. He traveled the way of self-denial through meditation, through the emptying of the mind through all images. Along these and other paths did he learn to travel. He lost his Self a thousand

In Linda Sue Park’s book A Long Walk To Water, the main character learned that one with hope and persistence will go far in their life. The main character had hope and persistence on his journey when he lost loved ones during the war, went to the refugee camp, and to his “new” family in the United States of America. The main character showed that he had hope and persistence to keep him moving throughout this marjory journey. Slava faced many struggles in his journey, some were mentally hard to overcome them like losing loved ones. In the book A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park on page 65 “Marial and Uncle were no longer by his side…”

“ All I kept thinking about, over and over,was You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.” (pg.40)

“I did not weep. But I had no more tears! And, in the depths of my being, on the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like---free at last!” (Wiesel 81).

The first time I heard “Ar'nt I a Woman?” was freshman year of high school, during our annual African-American Heritage assembly. The crowd, always restless and inattentive, chattered and snapchatted away as the speech and presenter were announced. A lanky girl shuffled on stage, folding in on herself as she walked, arrived center stage, and began to speak. As she went on, her spine straightened, her murmurs turned to phrases enunciated so clearly her tongue seemed to be working three times as hard as a normal person’s. By the end of the speech, she had the undivided attention of the audience, all holding their breath because of how passionately and honestly she presented this glimpse into life as a black woman. Both Chapter 4 of A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson, and Sojourner Truth’s “Ar'nt I a Woman?” speech serve the same general goal: showcasing the mistreatment of African American Women by society . While Truth’s speech is from her perspective, full of rage and frustration, A Shining thread gives her experiences important context. .

Uba theorized that Tensi went down this path in an attempt to forget his painful memories.During

The excerpt taken from Chinua Achebe’s Things fall apart comes from the end of the book, where the commissioner finds Okonkwo’s body dangling from a tree. This passage serves as closure for the novel, as the traditions of the past die along with Okonkwo. Achebe uses this specific scene in the novel to express both his views on the inevitable death of Igbo culture in the lower Niger (specifically Umuofia), as well as his perception of the portrayal of its people in western literature. In addition, Achebe continues to use this scene to drive the idea of cultural difference between both the inhabitants of Umuofia, and the missionaries that inhabited the land.

Milarepa’s captivating life story depicts a man willing to commit sins on behalf of his mother’s command to one that decides to leave his family, in order to achieve enlightenment. This autobiography allows him to remain to be a beloved yogin because of his drastic and fulfilling spiritual transformation, thus encouraging Tibetans to seek a similar path to nirvana in their lifetime. However, Milarepa proves that one’s journey to liberation and enlightenment has to be earned and fought for spiritually and psychologically.

Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed exhibited a story of a fight for human rights, the struggle and hardships of discrimination, and the pursuit of a human being believing in what is right. After reading Unbowed it really shed some light on previous historic events and political leaders she had in common with. I found that Maathai drew many comparisons to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Two leaders that both fought for equality for their people Unbowed drew similarities to Marcos “The Fourth World War,” when Wangari explained Kenya’s rapid change in the early 1960’s and Alice Conklin’s “A Mission to Civilize.” These are just some of the main themes that I found coincided with the Wangari Maathai’s Unbowed.