28/11/2023
IS YOUR BLESSING A CURSE?
TALKING NONSENSE
The world takes too much for granted, even calling things that be as though they were not. Human beings find nothing amiss in calling white black and black white. We excellencify nonsense and in the same breath nonsensify excellence. And get away with it every day.
In the third world in particular, taking things for granted is almost like a lifestyle. It is almost as if all we do every day is sit around and assume. We assume too many things. For instance, we arrogate too much to fame and power and wealth.
We make the famous and the powerful and the wealthy instant icons and legends and models. Some of us even call them mentors, for nothing. Such fake life. Such tragedy of life!
Fame and power and wealth may be indices of enjoyment but they are not indicators of how well one’s life is, especially when it comes to adding value. You can be famous, you can be powerful, you can be wealthy but still be poor. In spite of your fame and power and wealth, if you are an angry, bitter, envious, greedy and unforgiving person, you are poor. In fact, if you wallow in fame and power and wealth but are envious of those beneath you, you are poorer than the poorest.
Africa is an interesting place. The continent has too much drama. The people never learn. We are permanently talking, never listening, never learning, never remembering.
At event after event, you find people who just left government philosophising on what and what ought to be done by the authorities. But they just left the system. Did they forget these great ideas when they were right in there? Or is this the reason political office holders want to die in there or crave to go back again and again?
Because they always forget. So, they go back to remember only to end up forgetting again. Then they re-go back only to forget something again. The beat goes on.
Really, fame and power and wealth are not for purposes of showing off and oppression. You don’t need all those mansions and all those exotic cars and all those quixotic, luxuriant lifestyles. Those may be the side chics, sorry, side perks of fame and power and wealth but they are certainly not the main dish. The trio are a much longer thing!
Use them well. Stop abusing them. They are too delicate and too sexy, the th*****me. You should never toy with them when you have them.
Because they are tenured. No one owns them for eternity. Fame and power and wealth are for a period. Even if you keep them for a lifetime, death shall at some point bring your tenure or reign to an end.
Then, those who encountered you shall have free course to tell your story. Shall they call you fame-miss-road and power-miss-road and money-miss-road? Or, shall they say that you used your fame and power and wealth for the common good? Imagine that every time the living praise the dead, the latter receives a standing ovation but a dozen strokes of beatings whenever evil works are remembered, shouldn’t those alive now learn to better deploy their blessings?
While we are at that, what’s fame and what’s power and what’s wealth? Simply, all three can be summed up as life with name or face recognition plus influence as well as means. It is important to have this enviable life but it is more important and indeed more enviable to use it for the benefit of mankind. Fame and power and wealth were originally intended to be, and are best when, used to advance the cause and course of humanity.
The famous and the powerful and the wealthy must use these immense powers to add value to the human race, even if they can’t. If for whatever reason they don’t, the same giver of fame and power and wealth shall raise stones to do the task that must be done. This is neither a threat nor a boast. Small becomes a nation!
That’s another huge reason the favoured should never brag. No matter your fame and power and wealth combined, you can neither remain for eternity nor can you stop the one you thought too small, too good-for-nothing and too out of your league from growing even above you. Life is cruel and in a very funny way. Small becomes mighty, mighty becomes small: just a matter of time.
Therefore, be humble. And, please note that humility is a holy word, a set-aside word. It is meant for only the famous and the powerful and the wealthy. Only they can qualify to be described as humble (if they remain so) since others are already humbled by their circumstances.
Now, let’s turn our attention to appropriate ways to apply fame and power and wealth. Ensure that they are not only blessings they also remain so and in action. Use them to promote, not demote people. Use them to build, not destroy.
Use them to create opportunities for others; use them to cut soap for others. Use them to emerge the Most Valuable Player with the most assists, as footballers are wont to say; use them to pass the ball to others so they also shine. Use your fame and power and wealth in pursuance of community good; use them for not just your selfish or nepotistic ends. Use your connection and your influence and your money to add value; use them to not subtract it.
Let posterity look back at your history and smile rather than frown. Instead of “I’ve retired this man and that woman” summarily, let people say you produced or promoted or supported this or that all the way. This is the real meaning of power plus including of fame and of wealth. Every other meaning is sinking sand.
At the end, such glorious titles as hero, icon, legend, philanthropist and role model are only meant for those who use their blessings to the benefit of mankind. What that means is: you are an impostor or false hero and false icon and false legend and false philanthropist and false role model if you ever accepted any of these accolades when all you have always done is deploy your blessings as a curse. Fortunately though, you can become a true hero and true icon and true legend and true philanthropist and true role model if you change henceforward. Use your fame and your power and your wealth well: to bless and never as a curse.
God bless Nigeria!
WHEN PEOPLE WALK AWAY
As a child, I read somewhere that life is an empty dream. I grew up wondering how something so full of action real time can be empty and a dream. But, that was thinking like a child which I no longer have the luxury of since I am now an adult.
Life is an empty dream. Nothing is real. Not even people.
Love flies off. Loyalty dries up. Beware, anyone can walk away.
Here’s a pair of consolation, though. Those who really love and are loyal shall stay, come what may. Love and loyalty don’t need any reason to stay on; they just stay because it is their assignment; to stay except their life is in danger.
Two, there are 8.1 billion people in the world. Why kill yourself when one or two or ten or a thousand or a million or even a billion abandon or deny or divorce you? There’s a far better way, my dear!
However, how do you react when people walk away from you? See, realise that no matter who you are and what you do or have, you shall never be permanently good enough for someone or group. Furthermore, understand that someone or others can leave you because you are too good for them or they are too under you.
So, once it happens, get to understand (without losing sleep) why a loved one or business partner or teammate called it quits. Take a deep breath. Give it time before breathing out.
Check to see if you caused it. You know, people say leaves fall off from trees. It is not true.
It is trees that shed off leaves. After transporting all nutrients in its leaves to its roots via translocation, for storage in preparation for harsh weather, the tree lets go of that particular set of leaves as they are now useless. Check to see if this is what happened either way in the case of someone moving away from you.
Never rush, to beg back or to move on. Give it time and in that window, scan and ventilate the past and present atmospheres as well as the future of your mind. Be as asentimental as can be.
Pray, even if you can’t. Keep a clean mind. Pray, handing it all to your Maker.
Thereafter, take a step: backwards or forward. Whatever you decide in the quiet of your being shall work, against all odds.
Meanwhile, permit me to pray for you. May God walk in for you every time people walk away. Be not afraid!
If darkness was upon the face of the deep but the Spirit of God moved upon it, it means no mess is too much for Him to clean up. Turn to Him, today; now! Amen!
© Akparawa Michael Bush
