Whose Life?
Illumination
Twins, Prudence and Patrice, were separated at birth and raised in different backgrounds. Each not knowing the existence of each other.
Prudence has been dreaming for prince charming to sweep her off her feet and take her to his castle, and she would live happily ever after. Her fairy tale romance came through allowing her to tell poverty goodbye. Her wedding was a dream she didn’t want to wake up from, and that dream continued for the next five years. On her fifth wedding anniversary, she woke up, packed her bags, leaving her only child, and the life she dreamed of behind. Raymond couldn’t understand how could someone sane leave a wealthy lifestyle to go back to a life of poverty. For the next two years, he did everything he could to get Prudence to come back home. So, to get a better understanding of her, he went on an expedition into her world. The high level of insecurities, the violence, the frequent deaths, poverty, and the pain, was mind-blowing. Raymond couldn’t understand how humans could thrive and survive in such an environment. “Please,” he begged for her life and sanity, “come back home, don’t you think you owe our daughter a mother?” Nodding Prudence said, “I can’t give her a life I don’t know.” “Then you give her yours and I will give her mine and together she will have the best of both worlds,” Raymond suggested. “I can’t live my life in your world, I have to live my life in mine.” “I don’t want my only child exposed to poverty, violence, and the pain your world gives. Come back home, I have everything you will need to live and survive,” Raymond pleaded. “I know that, and I thank you for that. But all I know how to do is to fight. From birth, I have to be fighting for everything I need. You gave me all I need, and in the process, you took away my ability to fight. I don’t know how to live without fighting.” Talking to his grandmother she said, “Sorry son, but she can’t live a life she doesn’t know. A life of poverty is the only life she knows. She can’t survive anywhere else.” “But how? Why?” Raymond demanded, tears slowly easing down his face, weakened by pain, and the failure to save the life of the only woman he had ever loved. “That’s life son,” his grandmother said, hugging him, “Some of us live the life we know, and others live the life they want.”
Patrice was excited to show off her humanitarian abilities, and she grabbed the first opportunity that came by to work in a refugee camp in Africa for 12 months. Growing up in a loving, but wealthy home, she was taught to take nothing for granted and give back to humanity. Doing voluntary work in shelters and hospitals in her state, she was prepared for anything. Twelve months became five years and she loved it. She loved life, and living among the poor she learned more about humanity, love, kindness, and the true value of life whether you are living in a hut or a mansion.
The doctor in charge of the clinic asked, “You are brilliant, smart, and beautiful, why stay here among so much poverty and pain? You could be out there earning millions.” Patrice smiled and said, “I have gotten more than a million smiles, and thank yous since I got here. As a social worker/nurse, I like healing hearts and minds.” “Will you marry me?” Dr. Lang proposed. “I have fallen in love with your heart. For you to give up wealth to live among the poor, you must have a beautiful heart.” She nodded and smiled releasing, “No doc, I am living the life I know. I was born in poverty and got adopted in wealth. My heart knows the truth.” “So you won’t marry me?” Giggling like a school girl Patrice said, “Well, I can’t marry someone I don’t know anything about.”
Some of us live the life we know, some of us live the life we want. Who has more power and control over their lives?
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you will enjoy it.
These are a few of my inspirations today.