Linus Uzodimma Thomas-Ogbuji

After seven decades and some, I can feel the incipient ebb tide of life. The end is not far. It is time to say goodbye. I choose to do so with this candid valedictory-cum-obituary. Let me call it my “Valebituary.” I’m doing this myself to preempt any efforts to put out mere platitudes and euphonies about me when I die.

The aim of this final message is to express sincere appreciation to my family and my friends. And acquaintances too: Perhaps we chanced to meet, greet, shake hands or chat-or even argue. Or we partook of some repast together—or interacted in some way at some point on the trajectory of my life. If so, you helped to create the final product I became. I thank you.

I have been places, done things, and met people; in other words, l’ve lived a fulsome life and am ready to go. I’m leaving behind a thriving family of budding prodigies, some of whom are already at the cusp of adulthood. I leave them in the loving care and resourceful providence of my honorable wife of five-plus decades. What more could I want? What more can I say?

Being sadly aware of the way people imbue death and dying with superstition (aka religion), I need to make one thing quite clear. In our Demon-haunted world —as Carl Sagan called it-living a life without anesthetic delusions about things “supernatural” is a huge challenge, but l’ve tried my best. In that, I was helped by my retreat into near-total seclusion in my final years. So I ask all of you to remember me as I was, rather than try to associate me with any delusional notion of “passing” to some phantom abode in the sky.

Life is good; the world is fascinating; the universe is splendiferous beyond all human ken or imagination. Unfortunately, rather than seek to understand nature’s magnificent glories by rational means, people choose to obfuscate it with gold-plated myths that we call religion, spirituality, or “scientology” —because of profound fear of death. I chose the science way.

Dying, like being born, is an intensely personal thing. When I die my family will dispose of my body privately, after which they will announce my death and release this message.

My final testament to my beloved grandchildren is as follows.

1. Seeking “truth” or enlightenment or comfort in supposedly “holy” books of Stone-Age

men is more harmful than seeking it from hallucinogenic chemicals: People can and do

recover from drug addiction, but very few ever return from the quagmire of religious

indoctrination.

2. Nature is not inscrutable; humans have done splendidly on that score, unraveling its

complexities by thinking and experimenting— and with steady, cumulative progress.

Nevertheless, in spite of our phenomenally advanced science and technology the world

is supersaturated with believers of irrational and foggy myths.

3. In life, it is polite to “go along to get along.” But beware! The vast majority of believers are hypocritical, intolerant, and pushy, I’ve known a few (very few!) good ones among them, but even those ones tend to use friendship as a bait to lure you for conversion. Learn to resist their ploy — and to shrug off their spite when you differ from them.
4. On the other hand, avoid the futility of arguing about religion. One of the hardest things in life is to separate a man from his god: Religion is a product of people’s primordial and visceral fear of death; they will cling to it against all logic.
5. Fear not to be yourself — or even by yourself. Solitude promotes self -understanding! I never once regretted my final decade of seclusion.
6. Above all, dear ones, do not let fear of death hijack your life or poison it!

Fare well, my friends and family; and may life be as good to you as it has been to me!

I am, Yours sincerely,

Linus Uzodimma Thomas-Ogbuji 1/16/22