With the Almighty’s, blessings, at noon 15th day of August, 2020, I turned to be 63 years on my voyage on this planet. The `new normal’ times allowed enabled a select few family members and friends to gather and witness Rev. Alfred Apela of the All Saints’ Cathedral Nairobi bless the occasion. Maddo crowned the day with a caricature of myself published in the Saturday Standard.
My good friend Bosco Ngetich Ole Sambu once described me as a `Man of Shibumi’, drawn from the description by author Trevanian.
I was led to believe that “shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without prudence.
In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is . . . how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that.”
“How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?”
“One does not achieve it, one . . . discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that.
“Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?”
“Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.”
― Trevanian, Shibumi
Have I attained the status to be referred to as a `Man of Shibumi’???
You tell me. Or do we leave it to time to tell?