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I have learnt how to die: a lesson I did not even know that I needed.

When I heard the news, based on logistics, my first response was "was he shot?" because never in a thousand years did I watch a dying man as I watched King T'challa (Boseman Chadwick's character in the movie called Black Panther). Chadwick Boseman died yesterday. 

It's  Sunday the 30th of August 2020. The time is 4:56 am and I'm listening to Chadwick Boseman (The Black Panther) sing "Grandma's hands"

Grandma's hands come to church on Sunday morning

Grandma's hands  play the tambourine so well

Grandma's hands used to issue out a warning, she said

"Chad don't you run so fast, might fall on a piece of glass, maybe sticks they're in that grass"

Grandma's hands  

Is this how people die? haaaaaaaaa !

As I type this, I listen to his voice in the background sing the song above. So much life, so much life. How could this same person have been battling cancer?. He was dying but he was not in death; he lived until he died. I have heard about finishing strong and I have read about it but until today, until Boseman Chadwick, I'd never seen it. 

Till his last breath he breathed excellence. He did not live on excellence as a person lives on the top of a hill; high but flat. He kept turning the volume up, He kept pushing, without breathing a word about his loss (an excerpt from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If") .

I am in pain but more so, I am in awe. This morning, I am watching everything Youtube has to show about him.... I am hearing his voice, watching him walk, seeing his smile and I'm looking for a sign, a warning. What I have seen is a full human being, a symbol of warmth, a content person, a giver. 

For four years he battled with cancer and he kept showing up. There's a temptation to become complacent and flatten out when we start receiving praise for our achievements. The whole idea of Wakanda that is potrayed in the Black panther movie is extremely symbolic to me. Wakanda: a haven of technology made by people like me, ruled by people like me. I have heard that a person cannot have what she cannot imagine. In Boseman Chadwick's mind, he built a paradise and brought it to the screen so that the blueprints of his imagination could stimulate the birth of ours. He succeeded.

The way to die is to die empty. To pour oneself out like oil on an altar. To give life our best shot and to shoot again. To reach out and change the things we do not like. This is the Boseman Chadwick way.

Boseman sir has gone to be with the Lord and my heart is filled with joy. It was an honour to share this space with him and it gladdens my heart that he is home. Free from the pain and I would get to meet him someday.

#WakandaForever

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