Of KCSE results, life and literature

“The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt. I ache for the world but naturally I’m mostly watching the Me Movie, where balance and strength are beginning to ebb and, on the surface, things are descending into grandma pudding…

What can we do as the creaking elevators of age slowly descend? The main solution is not to Google new symptoms late at night. But I also try to get outside every day, ideally with friends. Old friends — even thoughts of them — are my ballast; all that love and loyalty, those delicious memories... When I can no longer walk, I will sit outside with them, gaze into their faces, and look up.

That is the perennial instruction: Look up! Looking up gives us freedom and causes the shadows to slip right down our backs. Recently I was walking along the cliffs above the Pacific with one of these old friends, named Neshama. We go back 50 years. She is 84, short and sturdy with fuzzy hair like mine”.

These are words by Anne Lamott in her article, “How to age happily: Spend time outdoors, with friends, and look up”. When she writes “The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt,” it hits deep. People are hurt by the grades they got in school or lovers and friends who got away.

As some ex-high school students celebrate the KCSE results released on Monday, January 8, 2024 by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, many could have been hurt by the grades they got and could be grieving.

However, the youngsters should learn to play the game of life even when they are hurt. It is true that all of us would have wished to get As in all our exams. However, only a few people can do that. What the young ones, especially those who didn’t get the grades they wanted, shouldn’t do is get depressed about it. It’s like crying for spilt. It is what it is.

And as Ms Lamott writes in the opening passage, as people get older, they realise that some things are more important than others.

To be clear, students should put all the effort they can to pass their exams. Exam results could play a part in one’s life. However, life is more than just passing exams and much more than having good papers.

Ms Lamott surmises that as one gets older, happiness could be spending time outdoors with friends or loved ones. There is no one in old age who will be bragging about the grades they got in school. It won’t matter then.

What matters is to serve humanity in whatever capacity, whether a plumber or a president. We all seek to be great and famous but maybe what matters really is attaining the significance that comes from positively impacting the lives of others. That’s an enduring legacy.

Life is complex and human nature intriguing. As the ex-high schoolers stay at home waiting for the next chapter in life, it will do them a lot of good if they could read some good fiction literature. Life, it has been said, is a school of hard knocks and fiction can prepare young people for life in various ways.

Firstly, reading fiction makes us better at working out other people’s thoughts and emotions. Some neuroscience studies have shown that “reading fiction exercises the part of the brain we use to empathise with others”.

In our complicated world, empathy is increasingly important whether one scored an A or an E. The more empathetic young people could end up doing better than others who have higher IQs. Empathy is an important aspect of emotional intelligence, which is needed a lot in today’s workplace.

Renown psychologist Daniel Goleman, in his famous article, “What Makes a Leader”, emphasises that: “The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but…they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions.

My research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non (essential condition) of leadership.

Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader”. Reading fiction helps one get into the “feelings of others” and could help with aspects of emotional intelligence like empathy.

Second, reading literature helps people to be less anxious and depressed and keeps them from other forms of harmful pastimes. Reading keeps people from gadgets and social media addiction. Reading and imagining scenes and sceneries can be not only entertaining but also relaxing.

Thirdly, literature expands our minds. For instance, literature can take the reader into a room in a magical way of mental “transport”. As the reader imagines the room, they visit it in their mind’s eye.

Such imagination expands our minds and could help us in other areas of life where fertile imagination and creative thinking are needed. May we play the game of life confidently. Play when the going is good. Play when hurt.

The writer is a book publisher based in Nairobi. [email protected]