With Adetunji Ayobrown
Every life has a worth. The characteristic that naturally pertains and peculiar to all humans is a must and a necessity was my personal conviction and so also my life conclusion, how did I arrive at this? Life experiences explained. God has purposes for every individual life, and every soul is God’s unimaginable creativity. Not because you are born but because you are given a life, was the very first message that flashed through my brain when my MD/Editor-in-Chief said ‘never allow your present condition or situation to affect your health’. Destiny had singled out each and individual’s life for great thing, imagine our worst enemy could be our best friend and vice versa he said. I had this discussion with boss over the improvement in my department and my office generally…but this man was wonderful somehow in his over thirty minutes meeting as he was able to ‘see through my mind and depth of my soul with ease’ whatever that means was never of any reasonable meaning to me until now.
Life is certainly full of bitter pills but ‘never lose the leg, even if you lose the ball’ was my games teacher’s quote during my secondary school days. Just jump, when life shut the door and open the window.
Myself inclusive, many if not us all dislike ‘traps of life’, we found ourselves here without us knowing and even without us agreeing to this fact. Whether we like it or not, this is where we are and for this, we must struggle for life’s survival for as long as we breathe and for as long as it takes…but teach your children all you know even if you are going to die.
As children, we started our lives with great exuberance expecting and demanding everything from the world. This generally we carry over into our first forays into the larger society as we begin our careers, but as we grow older, the rebuffs and failures we experienced set up boundaries that only get firmer with time. Coming to expect less from the world, we accept limitations that are really nothing but self-imposed. But then, the struggle continues, never scoff at the symbolism of life grandeur, a hard lesson I learnt during this my short life I am still living.
Whatever you are given, our creator has purpose for every single and individual life on this planet; funny enough, Mother Nature care less whether you agree with your figure, calling, status or situation, it is a must that will all play our parts for as long as we exist…but even if you die today or tomorrow, life goes on.
Most human beings are carried away by their circumstances and situations without them been critical about how and what they too contributed or give back to this human existence. Most parents give back less than 10% of their own knowledge gathered into their offspring, leaving these children to fend for themselves in this cruel unknown world, whereas it is suppose to be knowledge addition from generation to generations. Academics is not and should not be the only priority of parents as classified in our today’s educational system. Most parents think spending millions in acquiring formal education will make their siblings ‘superhuman’, but most often lesser unimpressive results or even the opposite are achieved. If not, breakthroughs, new inventions, innovations and even better discoveries are suppose be from rich men ‘pikin’, but unfortunately, it is from children of humble and poor backgrounds.
The gods on great mountains, looking down on human actions from the cloud, they see in advance the endings of all great dreams that lead to disaster and tragedy. They laugh at our inability to see beyond the moment and how we delude ourselves.
Even if I will die tomorrow, I will teach my children all, I mean all I know, ranging from good to bad to terrible, after all, they are factors and parts of our lives.
‘Aye ole feni to ba gbon’ – my wife ringing tone, truly, ‘life is easy for an intelligent person’, knowing what to expect, what to do and the probable outcomes of our lives’ experiences should be the mandate of not only parents but every adults, in inculcating into the lives next generations and others yet to come…life will surely be better in no distant time. Looking at the improvement in science and technology, if same is done in our individual and collective lives, one can imagine what the results will be in another two to three decades.
Teaching our children each and every critical analysis of good and bad examples of life’s situations will help them in the future. Thank God I have good parents and will strive to be one too.
Christ was not born in a mansion but in the manger, so also was Prophet Mohammed; it is clearer, most movers and shakers of this world came from humble backgrounds and beginnings. We start to bow and scrape and apologise for even the simplest of requests, the solution to such shrinking of horizons is to deliberately force ourselves in the opposite direction – to downplay the failure and ignore our limitations, to make ourselves demand and expect as much as the child.
Ranging from morning prayers to good human relations and behaviours, as demanded by our creator, every being must teach his or her off springs all the necessities of life to serve as a guide and as a guard if they too must enjoy the best of life.
One can imagine why most people died and their lives dissolved like a travelling circus leaving town without any trace, even their wards and children never got to enjoy the best of their forefathers and mothers; What a colossal loss for their family and generation?! They vanish in the night as if they were never there not because they were designed or created for that but because of their nonchalant attitude towards what is suppose to be their ‘life’s major’ was classified by them as minor.
In attitude and behaviour, many lives lack regal dignity and firmness of purpose even to themselves, while thinking they are doing so to hurt someone else, but looking closer, maybe their parents had lived similar life pattern and style.
As created and designed, life seeks to achieve something(s) and thereby shows no mercy, that is what life has been from genesis and it has no evidence of smallest of change even to the revelations, a true fact every being must understand.
The strategy of the crown, as explained is based on a simple chain of causes and effects: if we believed we are destined for great and better things; our belief will radiate outward, just as a crown creates an aura around a king…creating all that is needed for life continuity. Though, the symbols that came to be associated with us were neither the sceptre nor the crown, but our behaviours and manners with which we would account for life after death.
It is within your power to set your own life’s price, maybe not by asking for moon, but raise our own life status and prominence, and unless a man who set such a high price on himself and his life and that of his wards, he must somehow be seen to be worth it. Be sublime in your deeds and lofty in our thoughts was my mother’s quote whenever she called to encourage his son.
*Ayobrown, Senior System Analyst, National Pilot Newspaper, writes via aayobrown@gmail.com
