JUNE 11

 

I was thinking this morning.... about June 11. I woke up this morning with June 11 plastered all over my subconscious. As I wondered why, I was taken on a journey through time. I hesitated and asked 'Where to and why?' I heard a soft whisper 'Relax! Walk with me.'

I was taken into a large room with several doors. As I turned the knob of the first door, I immediately saw myself in medieval times. I was witnessing the wedding of King Henry VIII of England to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. It was a private ceremony in the church of the Observant Friars outside Greenwich Palace. When I checked the date, it was June 11, 1509.

I exited that room and opened the second door and saw myself in Missuola County in Montana, USA. I watched as a baby girl was being delivered. 'But who is she?' I asked and was told she will be named Jeannette Rankin, and will grow up to become a politician and the first woman to be a member of the U.S. Congress. The date? It was June 11, 1880.

At this time, I was frowning and wondering where all this was going. As I moved towards the third door, it opened and I was sucked into a theater. When I looked at the big screen, it was the premiere of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. I recalled my days in Hussey college, Warri when that movie was released. As I stood up to leave, the date flashed by and it was June 11, 1982.

There were two more doors even as my anxiety heightened. The 4th door opened and I was blowing vuvuzela in a huge stadium in South Africa. The mood was electric. As I jumped and sang with the crowd, I discovered it was the opening ceremony of the 19th FIFA World Cup tournament, the first on the African continent. The date was June 11, 2010.

I left the stadium smiling but exhausted from opening doors. But there is one more, the voice whispered. Reluctantly, I opened and saw myself in Benin city, Nigeria. A mother was smiling on a Sunday morning like today. 'What's the reason for her joy?' I asked. 'A baby girl has been born,' I was told. 'But who is she?' I asked further. 'She will be called Edirin and will in later years become the wife of your youth and the mother of your children.' Wow!

Now I understand why I was taken back in time. It is to learn that though celebrities were born, histories were made, great men died on June 11, yet nothing makes today June 11 more special than the fact that my young wife was born.

Happy birthday to the wife of my youth. May the good Lord remember you for good as you celebrate.

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey