Having experienced a time of great sorrow, the similarities between what Malta has sustained in terms of pain and suffering, as it emerged from a long succession of foreign domination to become an independent free island nation, were strangely akin to the turmoil which afflicts the family and friends of a loved one in danger of losing his/her life to terminal illness. The more thought given as to how these seemingly unrelated matters converge into a meaningful common pattern, the more logical it became to examine them in ways which gave them sense and substance. For some the link is far fetched or makes no sense whatsoever, yet for others with a more open mind the premise is worth closer dissection.
This being an exercise in comparative terms dealing in similarities, it makes sense to bring Malta's bryophyte history to the fore. It is a chronicle replete with events driven by external forces, originating beyond its ability to influence or control. No matter, facing near impossible odds Malta in the end always managed to walk away from falling off the edge of an abyss. Under repeated military occupation it licked its wounds, assimilated in selective fashion the virtuous cultural influence of its oppressors, all the while it enriched its very soul in the torturous process. Malta is living proof that strength is often borne out of adversity.
To better appreciate the significance of Malta's precarious balancing act is to esteem the ever present threat of a minuscule nation standing astride three enormous continents, threatening to assimilate it from all sides at the expense of drowning its own national identity. Malta's perennial struggle for survival with its beginnings rooted in prehistoric times extends to the present day, in view of its proposed union with the European community. The island's precarious situation not to be swallowed whole by well meaning benefactors becomes more meaningful when reduced to human terms.
The love of one's country is much like the devotion felt towards parents, siblings and children. In fact such single strands are tightly woven in the fabric of any society at large, as it defines itself into a distinct identifiable group or nationality, with unique racial traits and cultural characteristics. So what holds true for a nation is equally applicable at the level of its individual citizens. It is with this observation in mind that one can speak in relative terms about hardships, pain and ultimate survival with people, much in the same vain as has been observed historically about Malta and its turbulent past. In either instance the greater issue of redemption, from near disaster to hope for a better future is transformed into a common inspiration.
The parallels between a nation and an individual fighting to survive take on sharper dimensions. Imagine being a spectator to seeing a loved one transform from a healthy vibrant person to becoming victim of a dreaded disease. Just as Malta battled in heroic fashion to ultimately emerge as a free nation, so does a stricken sufferer of illness fight to maintain a fine line between insanity and lucidity in his/her bid for life. The analogy goes on. Where Malta endured the ravages of war waged against it by the Ottoman Empire for the duration of the 1565 great siege, so it is with a patient afflicted with cancer, who went to hell and back undergoing an entire week of exposure to intensive chemotherapy. In both instances the will to survive against overwhelming probability will have decided the final outcome.
The spectacle of witnessing a loved one being ravished by excruciating pain is to suffer greater anguish within one's self. Was it not so in Malta during WWII, when bombed to near extinction by the Axis powers, its people felt hopeless against an onslaught of evil, originating from a malignancy which seemed unstoppable. They suffered and hungered in desperation as their beloved homeland was systematically reduced to rubble. Yet in the end Malta resurrected despite its near mortal wounds , as surely as people given up for death, inexplicably recover to once again lead a normal life. The human spirit knows no bounds, collectively as one nation, or within each afflicted person. Hope reigns eternal, at least for those who love life in spite of its many heavy burdens. Life is renewed. The precipice holds no more terror.
E-mail to Joseph Vella: joevella@prodigy.net
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