I salute you from valley of the dreams that were, to the caves of the moment that were meant to be & the hill tops of the yet to come. Welcome once again to this live recording session before a jolly audience eager to hear from you. I need a volunteer to come up on the stage of life, take their position as the author of their story & believer of the unknown.
Well ladies & gentlemen it has dawned upon me that you are indeed blessed & highly favored. Don’t be surprised, I need you to believe that no matter how bad or tough life is, you are going to make it. It may not seem & feel like it now, but you are on the path of your life that will make you reach your peak, standing out like Mt. Everest.
Who said that you have to be shackled to the ways that were & be enslaved to the mind-set of old? Let yourself be the driver in control of the vehicle that is your life. You can take charge & make your life have meaning & not ape all that you come across. It is said that show me your friends & I will tell you your character.
The truth of it relies on the interpretation that one opts to go with. When you were growing up, your guardian/parent used to correct you when you made mistakes. Those of my time, do recall when we used to be beaten (not spanked. You! Yes, you! Wipe that grin of your face & trash that thought you just had) with anything that could be found & any adult could mete out the well-deserved punishment.
At the time, the African phrase it takes a village to raise a child got applied in a more practical way of instilling discipline or was it the fear of God if need be. When a wrong was done, it was not a matter of discussion it was, if the evidence fits the crime then consequences will follow immediately with no exceptions.
Let me not get you lost in the colorful language scheme but rather guide your minds back to the path of what we fail at one time or another. We have put ourselves to be judge, jury & executioner of our fellow people. There are times when we look at others we only see the opportunities that they are stealing from us, yet it is their hard work that is paying off.
When someone starts making more money than we anticipated, we bash them & claim they are in the Illuminati or it is ill gotten wealth When your boss keeps on seeking the opinion of your colleague, you whisper in the dark that an affair is smelling in the air. Why are we so hypocritical when the lives of others do not reflect our own?
What is it that draws us to make all forms of deductions about people even when we don’t have a single shred of evidence to back up our allegations or claims. Is it that we have a superiority complex or is it that just have the mentality aspect of judging a book by the cover having not read the chapters? Those are just some questions I thought to bring to the fold, we deliberate together.
If I may once more just seek your indulgence in getting the right of audience before you. Have you ever looked at someone, you debate on what/who they are, assume their state & decided their fate without first knowing or talking to them? Let us give a simple example, a man dressed in a t-shirt & jean & a sharply dressed man in a suit enter a bank, who do you think will be served quickly?
This is not a trick question but just to point out something so obvious from the societal or individualistic view point. An individual in a Mazda Demio & another in a Mercedes Benz, who would be given way without much of a hustle? Anyway, you can think of the other examples of such nature whereby, what the eye sees as is, is what is considered more important than what is underneath.
We never, take the time to understand a person, situation or circumstance but are quick to jump to the conclusion with no second thought. It is unfortunate that when one takes a stroll in the busy streets & you see someone you proceed to assume that all is well with them & that they are having it easier/better than you (I have been guilty of this before).
You don’t know if that person is having his/her own struggles, has slept with no food, or they are jobless or that they have just lost someone close or that nothing good has ever come their way. It is understood that the eyes are the windows to the world. There is this common Japanese proverb, “see no evil, hear no evil & speak no evil”.
What is the meaning behind this proverb? Why is it that they started with what we see? Is it because the first sense to take in what is around us is our eyes, (you tell me)? If you see a colleague at the job getting promoted & yet you have been there for long, don’t you ever wonder how is it that they are climbing rank faster than you (Hmmm!)?
It does not matter which religion you are in but one of the most common verses you have ever heard or read about is the one in the book of Matthew 7:3 which says, "why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?".
Think about it, what does this truly mean. Is it that, we are greater & more deserving than others or is it the weakness in our human gene that we can't help ourselves in judging others.
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