tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77872344574949828732024-03-13T12:41:26.308+01:00Bomi EhimonyECLECTIC.. A bit of Everything!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.comBlogger201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-4341520026706746672017-05-21T13:42:00.000+01:002017-05-21T13:52:44.994+01:00Invictus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The first time I heard anything
of Invictus, I was watching an episode of Criminal Minds and when the job was
done and the team was in the plane heading back to wherever they were heading
back to, a member of the team quoted the final verse of the poem:</span>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
matters not how strait the gate,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How
charged with punishments the scroll,</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am the master of my fate:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am the captain of my soul.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The writer of the poem
is a poet called William Ernest Henley, who lived between the 17<sup>th</sup>
and 18<sup>th</sup> century, whose whole literary reputation rests solely on this
singular piece of art. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Basically, it is a
short poem about not sulking because you have a shitty life; it reminds us that
everything is under our control because we are the masters of our fate.
‘Invictus’ is from a Latin word that translates to English as ‘unconquerable’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, it is important
that we understand the context based upon which this poem was written. As a
child, William Ernest Henley developed tuberculosis of the bone, which occurs when
the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis spread from the lungs to the bone, then
as a young man of 25 the Tuberculosis spread to his foot and his doctors
decided that in order for his life to be saved, they must amputate his leg.
Henley wrote Invictus on his hospital bed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Faith is a very
important concept in life, in this case, faith in anything. Not so much
important where the faith is directed, per se, at least not immediately. In the
third and fourth lines, Henley wrote: ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul.</i>’ There is also a
part of the poem which I find personally satisfying. In the 7<sup>th</sup> and
8<sup>th</sup> line, Henley suggests that pain picks its victims through
nothing but chance, which is at variance with the way many people see it, they
assume that everything happens in a planned sequence: and victims of pain are
victims of pain because someone (usually the devil) has a personal vendetta
against them. Henley writes: ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the
bludgeoning of chance, My head is bloody, but unbowed.’</i> Notice ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">under the bludgeoning of chance</i>’, It is
chance that bludgeons you, nothing else. Bringing in the devil puts a religious
spin to it and when there is a religious spin to it, there is something to pray
about or pray <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">against</i>. This is only
true some of time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I believe that this
poem is a must read, not just for individuals who are going through pain and or
suffering, but for every person. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And because of that, you
can find the poem below for your reading pleasure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You are welcome!</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">INVICTUS</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Out
of the night that covers me,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Black
as the Pit from pole<sub> </sub>to pole,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
thank whatever gods may be</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For
my unconquerable soul.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the fell clutch of circumstance</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
have not winced nor cried aloud.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under
the bludgeoning of chance</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My
head is bloody, but unbowed.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Beyond
this place of wrath and tears</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Looms
but the Horror of the shade,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
yet the menace of the years</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finds,
and shall find, me unafraid.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
matters not how strait the gate,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How
charged with punishments the scroll.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am the master of my fate;</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am the captain of my soul.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-91687619572469803392017-05-12T19:56:00.001+01:002017-05-12T19:56:43.186+01:00Pearls Before Breakfast <div style="text-align: justify;">
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<h1 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I read of an experiment in context, perception and
priorities – as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste. It was titled ‘Pearls before
Breakfast’ and was put together by the Washington Post.</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am going to attempt
to summarise the experiment below.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A man sat at the L’enfant Station in
Washington DC, a metro station swarming with busy people going back and forth,
and began to play the violin. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">He played some of the most beautiful pieces
of music ever, ever, ever composed. It was calculated that as he played,
thousands of people went through the station, most of them were on their way to
work. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;">
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;">
</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A few minutes passed before a middle aged man
noticed that there was some man playing music. He slowed his pace for a few
seconds and then hurried up away. A minute later, the violinist received his
first tip: a woman threw the money into the cup the man had placed on the ground
for tips and she continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against
the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk
again. <br>
<br>
The one who paid the most attention was a <nobr>3 year</nobr> old boy. He was
walking with his mother, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. The
mother pushed hard for the kid to keep walking until the poor child, without a choice,
continued to walk with his mother turning his head all the time. This action
was repeated by several other children. All the parents forced them to keep
moving. <br>
<br>
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only <nobr>6 people</nobr> stopped and
stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money without paying him any attention.
He collected $32.00 in total. When he finished playing and silence took over,
no one noticed it.<br>
<br>
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest
musicians the world has ever seen. He played some of the most intricate pieces
ever written with a violin worth $3,500,000 dollars.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Washington post had
this to say: “Each passer-by had a quick choice to make, one familiar to
commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of
the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt
and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on
your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your
decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time
for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment?”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In short, Do You Have Time For Beauty?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On Joshua Bell, The Washington Post wrote:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He seems so apart from his audience -- unseen,
unheard, otherworldly -- that you find yourself thinking that he’s not really
there. A ghost. Only then do you see it: He is the one who is real. They are
the ghosts.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So what is beauty anyway? Is it a measurable fact
(Gottfried Leibniz), or merely an opinion (David Hume), or is it a little of
each, colored by the immediate state of mind of the observer (Immanuel Kant)?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Washington Post goes with Kant, because they
think “he’s obviously right, and because he brings us pretty directly to Joshua
Bell, sitting there in a hotel restaurant, picking at his breakfast, wryly
trying to figure out what the hell had just happened back there at the L’enfant
Metro.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I disagree with them, and I agree with Leibniz.
Beauty is measurable fact. It is plain. It is obvious. It is there. If you do
not recognize it in all of the forms in which it comes, then you do not
recognize beauty in all its forms. The better argument perhaps may be to
determine the possibility of recognizing all of the forms of beauty.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let me tell you something, life is short. We must
appreciate all the beauty of the world while we still can. We must marvel with
fascination as raindrops stump against our windowpanes and make vermiform shapes
on the panes. We must appreciate things because that is the best way to live
our lives to the fullest.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-33522102154926844462017-04-21T23:11:00.005+01:002017-04-21T23:26:27.500+01:00How to Start a Cult<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Jonestown ‘massacre’ occurred in 1978. On November 18, 1978, a total of 919
people were killed from cyanide poisoning, in what they termed,
"revolutionary suicide" by a man called James Warren ‘Jim’ Jones. Jim
Jones was reported to have said, "Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down
your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony. I tell you, I
don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished
cries...death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If
you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd
be glad to be stepping over tonight."</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
Heaven’s Gate ‘massacre’ occurred in 1997. On March 26, 1997, American police
discovered the bodies of 39 members of a Christian group who had participated
in a mass suicide in order to reach what they believed was an extra-terrestrial
spacecraft. They were led to their deaths by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie
Nettles after they had been convinced that there was a space ship hidden behind
a comet that was then flying past the Earth - and that this space ship was
there to pick up true believers and ferry them off to a better place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yesterday,
the 20<sup>th</sup> of April, South African police arrested South African based
Nigerian pastor, Tim Omotoso. He is alleged to have raped 30 girl members of his
church. He was charged with human trafficking. He was said to be arrested
almost as soon as his plane arrived at the Port Elizabeth Airport, they found
him hiding in a female toilet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
have the incorrect definitions of cults in our heads, especially in the third
world. My opinion is that this is because here we are unhappy with accepting
the fact that cults are mostly religious groups. Almost every definition of a
cult richly contains religious groups and organisations; therefore we prefer to
see cults as a small group of misguided juveniles. Those are mostly
delinquents; call them terrorists even, whatever helps you sleep better. However,
a cult is unthinking devotion to an individual; a situation in which people
admire and care about something or someone too much.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
tend to no longer serve God as much as we serve His purveyors, and I say
purveyors knowing that not all who preach do it as a business venture. But you
find that those who make business ventures out of God are the ones with the
most ‘customers’ – people <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who are
usually willing to go blind for them, call white black for them, call lies
truths for them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A
disgusting video I saw on Twitter this week inspired this post. A woman, in her
40s – not much to look at, was threatening the life of Stephanie Otobo, the
estranged Stephanie Otobo, who Nigerians, especially customers of purveyors’, detest
extremely, mostly because of her allegations of sexual misconduct against
Apostle Johnson Suleiman, a popular Nigerian pastor. The video was disgusting
to me because she was telling us of her murderous tendencies; how she would
pour acid on someone if she sees them. How do you brighten a spot by shading
all over it? I have nothing against the apostle, whether he slept with her or
not is not my immediate concern. My problem is with the woman in the video. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She became the devil, not Stephanie Otobo, who
she was trying to pass across as the devil. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">One of the most baffling things
about faith being able to move mountains is this question: in whom <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">must</span> we
have faith bef<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">ore our mountains are moved</span>?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It is a baffling question because <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">I</span> have mountains mysel<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">f and <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">I</span> have asked myself this a thousand times. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">These</span> lines blur. </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">From
the first few paragraphs, you may see that one only needs few things to start a
cult, it is a sort of starter-pack: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">1.
A sort of authority </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">2.
Oration </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">3.
A group of people who have misplaced their faiths and are willing to go the
distance for and with you, their daddy, instead of for and with their God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
purveyors of God know of this starter-pack and they know how blurry th<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">e lines ge<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">t. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">T</span></span></span>hey seem to be in the process
of creating small cults among us; in the future, their small cults will grow
appendages. That time, it won’t just be hate speeches and criminal tendencies,
like wanting to pour acid on people, but actions as well. I pray we do not all
misplace our faiths<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">. I pray</span> some of us are left who actually believe in God and no<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">t his m<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">en, regardless of how blurry they make the line seem</span></span>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Thank
you for reading. See you next time.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-35756730541762206562017-04-09T09:38:00.000+01:002017-04-09T09:44:14.314+01:00Why I Write<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
2013, when I did it for the first time, it felt surreal; like I was doing
something that actually mattered. It felt like making an impact on people’s
lives and this was all the more beautiful because I was getting this feeling for
the first time in my life. Writing made me feel important. </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
first story I wrote was set in a fictional village I called Okunlewe, it was
about the killing of twins. I titled it My Mother’s Daughter and it had more
than 2,500 words. After I finished that story, I knew I was ready to take on
the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have written many more stories and have been published in places that I would
never have dreamed of. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
then I started and finished Dear Ella, my first novella. Even though Dear Ella
is presently stuck in a limbo, I have never been prouder of anything in my whole
life as I have been proud of writing Ella. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
why do I write?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
first time I read J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in Rye, I thought ‘Man, this is
the dumbest book ever.’ It took a second reading, a few months later, to
understand its genius and that this writing thing is the most private
endeavour one could pursue. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The only person
for whom your writing must make sense is you.</i> For example, the first line
of The Catcher in the Rye more or less sets the tone for the book and if you
are not really into being called a phony, then the book is probably not your
cup of tea and the writer does not care: ‘If you really want to hear about it,
the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my
lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they
had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going
into it, if you want to know the truth.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
feel that Holden Caulfield, the narrator, does not care about you, he tells his
story and cares very little if you like him or not. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
is the way writing is, at least to a larger extent. It is not about the reader.
I have written and sent out stories I swore were crap and the reviews came back
and they were brilliant, same time, I have written and sent out stories I was
sure were pieces of gems and the reviews that came back were ugly. Writing, at
least the process of story creation, has nothing to do with readers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
why do I write?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have a book by James Frey called How to Write a Damn Good Novel. On the top
cover it says ‘a step-by-step no nonsense guide to dramatic storytelling.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I scoff. I have never read past the
introduction where it whines on and on about what ‘a damn good novel’ does and
does not mean. No person can teach another person how to write. People can only
teach people how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they </i>write which is
usually useless because as I said, writing is an intensely p<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">ri<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">vate</span></span> thing,
therefore, how you write may be repulsive to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">People
give writing advice all the time, in fact, there is a verified handle on
Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/AdviceToWriters">@Advice<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">To</span>Writers</a>. There is nothing wrong with giving writing advice. It
is just a question of writers having the ability to sieve <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">advice</span> because many <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">advice</span> are silly. The long and short of this analysis is that there isn’t a
soul on earth who can teach you to write better than you can teach yourself to
write. And most importantly, writing is not a popularity contest, you want
popularity contests, go for Big Brother. The only writer to whom you ought to
compare yourself, is the writer you were yesterday – now that is some brilliant advice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
why do I write?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Can
you not see that I haven’t the slightest clue? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
maybe that’s it. Maybe once we start giving reasons to things the importance of
those things begins to dissolve. Like saying you love someone because that
person is beautiful, what happens in 10 to 15 years when the fleeting beauty
starts to fleet? Liking a tree because it produces fruits – what the hell
happens when said fruit is out of season? Here is the thing about chocolate, chocolate
is chocolate only because it has the cocoa-sweet taste of chocolate, if that
cocoa-sweet taste vanishes<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> </span>for some inexplicable reason, chocolate ceases to
be chocolate. So we do not like chocolate, what we like is that cocoa-sweet
taste. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So,
no. there is no reason I write. I love to, so I do.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-90988002448536605312017-03-20T12:51:00.000+01:002017-03-20T12:51:01.198+01:00On Moving<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At
this moment, 8.57am, 20/03/17, I am watching two men. One is sweeping leaves
off the interlocking concrete and the other is washing the boss’ car and
intermittently going to the sweeping guy. They are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gisting</i> like teenage girls on a playground. They are having fun,
patting each other, laughing hysterically at each other’s jokes. They look to
be in their mid-thirties to early forties. They are happy. They are content.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
see, happiness is a function of person not of society person is in. A person is
unhappy only when he allows the unhappiness around him diffuse into him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
is a quote I like from Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You, a touching novel about how a
paraplegic man and his help change each-others’ lives, it goes: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The thing about being catapulted into a
whole new life – or at least, shoved up so hard against someone else’s life
that you might as well have your face pressed against their window – is that it
forces you to rethink your idea of who you are. Or how you might seem to other
people.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
like it because I have found it to be true. It is a very interesting experience
to be catapulted into a new life. I am living that experience as you read this.
When I moved here, I thought I had everything about myself figured out and
wrapped together. But it did not take me long to realise that the things I know
about myself are only the things that the situations around me have exposed me
to. I imagine that this is not a personal thing. It occurs with everyone. It’s
like your life is in pages and there are several, several pages that you have
not read and you know nothing about simply because those pages are yet to be
opened.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have loved my time here so far. It has shown me that I can be more malleable
than I thought, that I can adjust, that life can swing left and right and I can
be still. I have decided about life to enjoy it, no matter its taste. I pray to
never ever see the setting sun and not appreciate it even on days when I am
hungry; to never get tired of the night skies even on nights when my heart is
broken, to never see the view out my office window and not marvel at the utter
wonder of life even when there is a ton of work to be done. I pray I never
become the man who does not know how to appreciate these tiny drops of miracle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
hate moving because it is a lot of work: packing things and then unpacking
things, arranging things and then lifting them. But in the 31 days between
January 28th and February 28th, 2017, I had to move twice; and certainly, I
would move again soon, at most before the end of April. I cannot complain
because in the grander scheme of things, it is a blessing. I did not necessarily
have to leave my last location. I left relative comfort and a lifestyle I
enjoyed and moved because 2017 was the year that I needed to lose my feathers
and grow some stronger appendages. This year has been such a blessing, you
can’t even imagine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
problem I have had is that it is not super exciting when you are new to a
place, it takes a while to get used to things. And that is another thing about
moving – the new place. People may find you strange because you act different
from them, because you are yet unaware that certain things should be done in
certain ways, because where you came from you must pay the cabbie before you
get off the cab but where you have moved to you must pay the cabbie once he’s
dropped you. It takes time to get used to new things. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
men are done with their car washing and leaf-sweeping. I can no longer see
them. They are probably somewhere eating boli and groundnuts. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Happily</i>.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-64420456438217233462017-02-23T23:17:00.002+01:002017-02-23T23:17:45.325+01:00The Documentation of Kindness<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These
days it seems like our experiences are not real or not authentic or not
complete if they are not photographed. We have made the world such that documenting
a meaningful experience feels not only more important than having that
experience, but as also an evidence of the truthfulness of that experience.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
bothers me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
bothers me because kindness is no longer kindness, humility is no longer humility.
What I mean is that it is impossible to just go out to an orphanage, for example,
and just lend help to orphans who need it. I imagine that an act of kindness
ceases to be that once pictures are taken. It becomes a craft of showmanship. I
began to think of this seriously around the end of last year. I and a group of
course mates went into a community to do a field posting exercise and we were
basically hustling to get everything on camera, we wanted to take pictures of
every single form of help we rendered. It was literally a hustle. But it was
not wrong because we actually did not intend to help anyone. Our primary
objectives there were dictated by our course and so we were not being kind, we
wanted to get the marks and we could only get them by taking pictures so we
would show our lecturers that we did such and such while we were there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">However,
thinking about it in the light of people who just want to render help and
assistance, It did not seem like they would do anything differently. In fact,
social media is littered with such images: People taking selfies with orphaned
children or motherless babies or street beggars and so on with cartons of noodles
and cartons of milk and bags of rice and bags of beans and sacs of yam littered
so obviously on the ground. They are giving to the less privileged, but they
are also advertising their goodness and kindness and humility and humanitarianism
to the rest of the world. They are telling the world about their kindness,
like: Look, world, look how kind I am. Look how caring I am. I am such a good
person. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">And
then they post these pictures all over social media and other folks like them
gush about their humility. I am so, so utterly proud of your kindness; how you
are helping out these miserable kids who are nothing, absolutely nothing,
without you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
bothers me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is worse when white, privileged people come into an African country, say South
Sudan, with their bright, long blonde hair and dark sunglasses and their tanned
skins and their tight jeans; and wrap their arms around skinny, kwashiorkored
African kids and smile dumbly at the cameras and then post long sermons with
these selfies on Facebook and Instagram about how their lives have been changed
by their visit to the very war-torn, ravaged Africa and the poor, poor,
suffering African children with zero hopes in life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Utterly
silly hashtags such as #InstagrammingAfrica are used to depict these selfies.
The narcissism is immense. How about they shove their ideas of voluntourism in
Africa down the toilet and instead send the money for their trips and hotel
accommodations and feedings and bracelet buying to Aid Agencies stationed in
those countries, the kids, these kids who they claim they love and who’s
suffering has utterly changed their lives, would definitely benefit more from
that than from being featured in their ridiculous photographs and silly
hashtags and lengthy captions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
less privileged are not tourist attractions, they are not beautiful bronze
carvings, they are not murals made from papier-mâché art; they are human beings
just like you who is so intent on taking pictures of them. All they need is
love and kindness and food, they definitely do not need their faces on your
stupid, conceited, narcissistic selfies.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-90451963042990052052017-02-13T20:59:00.000+01:002017-02-13T20:59:28.888+01:00Waiting for the Sun<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This
is the morning of thirteenth February; I am sitting in the courtyard by my
studio apartment, waiting for the sun to come out. It is 1.06 am. I have a few
thoughts that may seem like ramblings, they probably are.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Yesterday,
many things happened. Yesterday began sometime around 5.30 in the morning when
I decided that I would go to the same church I went last week Sunday. It is a large
church very close to where I live. It has more empty white plastic chairs than
members and when I went there for the first time, what struck me the most was
the fact that none of the members seemed to mind this sparseness. It is unlike
the twenty first century church. When it was time to welcome new comers, they
welcomed me and two other young men. At the close of church, they did not tell
us ‘we hope to see you next week.’ or ‘please join us for our midweek services,’
they told us, ‘God bless you.’ I could have sworn that they were trying to get
rid of us. It was strange and I was curious to know why they were so satisfied
with being a church with so few members, so satisfied with all those empty
white plastic chairs, it was that curiosity that led me back there yesterday.
And it is that curiosity that would make me a permanent member if I am to stick
around here much longer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
don’t keep New Year resolutions because I am way too fickle for them. But the
idea of resolutions at the start of each year does not seem like a bad one. I
understand resolutions like: I want to read more books this year, I want to
give to the less privileged this year, I want to listen to more music, I want
to party harder. The ones I don’t get are the most common: I want to lose
weight this year, I want to stop smoking or stop drinking, I want to become a
new person. These are very complex things that cannot just start and stop by
the push of a button, and you do not really need to wait for the first day of
the year to attempt to begin to achieve them. In the last few years, instead of
making resolutions, I have set one single goal for the year. Like last year, my
goal was to read thirty five books. I achieved thirty five in November so I met
my goal with one month to spare. The year before last, my goal was to get back
to school and study Public Health. I got admitted in November, I met my goal
with one month to spare. But the problem with setting a single goal for the
whole year is this: What happens when you achieve your goal for the year in
February? Maybe I should start setting New Year resolutions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">As
far as I am concerned, one of my better stories was published on Bella Naija on
the 23<sup>rd</sup> of December, 2014. It is called <a href="https://www.bellanaija.com/2014/12/bn-prose-the-thing-that-eats-people-up-by-bomi-ehimony/">The Thing that Eats People Up</a>. It is about a dead man’s side-chic. I was just reading it again and I
realized (again) why I love it more than many of the stories I have written. I
love The Thing that Eats People Up because of the character, Ade’s Wife. It
took me close to five months to finish the story because of her. The whole idea
for the story came while I was in NYSC camp in August, 2014 and I met a lady
whose carriage was so sublime that it was difficult to contemplate life before
or after her when she was in the same vicinity as you. I modelled Ade’s wife
based on this lady – (still, she was cheated on – men are scum, yes?). I never
saw the lady again after camp not because I did not want to, I wanted to, up
till this moment, I want to. But there are thirsts are better left unquenched.
On nights like these, when I await sunrise, I think of NYSC Camp at Kubwa and I
think of The Thing that Eats People Up and inadvertently, I think of Ade’s
wife.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s
3.08am. I am still waiting for the sun. Good morning, good afternoon or
goodnight!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-63092347211538087602017-02-11T17:44:00.002+01:002017-02-11T17:44:39.433+01:00Thoughts from Places: Benin City<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Benin
City smells like when you dice garlic into extra-hot vegetable oil. The people there
are literally 'not your mate' (they let you know this every chance they get): from the guy who gives you directions and when you say thank
you, he says ‘I hear’ in a manner that is so apathetic, you cannot help but
feel a sense of condescension, to the pot-bellied cabbie who is obnoxiously
singing long to the radio as P-Square’s extinct hit from the 19<sup>th</sup>
century, Busy Body, plays and then a man riding a jeep turns the bend suddenly
and narrowly avoids hitting him and he laughs hysterically and says, ‘no be who
dey ride big car na who get sense’, ‘it is not the person that drives a big
car that has sense.’ Or the old lady who owns the restaurant and sees you
standing and asks why they have not attended to you and you point at the queue
in front of you and she tells you, ‘e be like say hungry never do you.’ And she
goes ahead to do the same thing with all three people on queue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is an air of calmness. It’s almost as if they know that there is absolutely
nothing to be in a hurry about. They are not quick to laugh even though to you,
the visitor, almost everything they say is hilarious. Like in a bus ride, a
girl sitting in the back tells the driver to stop and he drives a bit
further before he finally does but she remains seated and he looks at her and
says ‘no be you say you wan stop?’ and the girl says, ‘as you don pass the place
wey I wan stop now, wetin you wan make I do?’ and the driver says, ‘okay, make
I dey go?’ To which the girl, dressed in a dashiki, altered so much, it now
looks more like a bikini, begins to storm out of the bus. Once she’s gone, the
driver hisses and snidely remarks, ‘I for carry her reach New Bini.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Even
the students are not playing. There are only a few speed bumps along the road
leading to the University of Benin, and to the University Teaching Hospital,
there are none. The city tells you, ‘Nobody gives a shit, take care of
yourself.’ Or more like, ‘take care of yourself, Idiot.’ The students are
unflustered by this and unflustered by everything, very unlike many Nigerian
university students. It hardly seems as though anything worries them. They
saunter around, dressed in whatever the hell they like, waiting for you or a
bus driver or a conductor or a fellow student or anybody at all to provoke
them, waiting to give you a piece of their mind. The proportion of students in
the University of Benin who dress as though they know about decency or
propriety or even piety is more or less negligible. In Nigerian universities,
you often find that female students in year one and generally pious female
students, the ones called SU dress obviously: long black skirts and large,
leather long sleeved shirts or long black shirt and a huge parachute of a hijab
whose one single job is to hide every cleavage or idea of cleavages attempting
to rear its ugly head, you can’t miss them. At Uniben, however, the case is
different. I did not see a single lady dressed as an SU or in a hijab, fancy or
parachute. Even the dashikis that many ladies wore had been severely altered so
that it looked like lingerie.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Benin
City is also a place where fetishism thrives. I heard of this many times
before. People make jokes about it. There are pictures that normally circulate
on Facebook, there is one of some Edo woman tying red clothing around an
electric pole and the caption reading: Oya PHCN, if dem born una well come cut
light. Maybe this is the reason you feel the calmness ― there is nothing to
fear. It is not something they hide even. They talk freely about it in buses
and cabs. For example, the same fat, obnoxious cabbie who was laughing and
saying it is not who drives big cars that have sense, when asked what he would
have done if the big car had hit him and had caused an accident, said ‘na bird
I be na. No be to fly comot?’ I was scared of this fetishism a bit on
the day I was to leave. I needed to check out as early as 6 in the
morning to catch the car coming back and at that time it was still dark, the
sun was yet to rise. I devised a plan: I wore a black shirt on a black trouser
and that solved my paranoia. The few people I met as I walked from my hotel to
the ju1nction to get a cab heading to the park swayed off my path. When you
live in Rome… </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is a nice city, Benin. It is full of history and art and signs and wonders, as
well as good people who would make you laugh regardless of your mood. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-27702029631458463202017-01-21T08:34:00.001+01:002017-01-21T22:35:27.405+01:00My Experiment with Commitment<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
have had a problem with commitment all my life. In nursery school, one of the
teachers, Aunt Bamisaye, liked to ask what our favourite colours were: mine was
blue and then it was orange and then it was green and then it was black and then
it was blue again. And even now, sometimes it is pink, sometimes it is brown,
sometimes it is grey. In Secondary School I was average, even though I could be
much better. I did not want to commit to spending some extra-time where I ought
to spend them. In relationships, my first lasted about three weeks. The first
week, I called her at least twice each day. The next week, I called her twice.
My last, which only just ended, began November 23<sup>rd</sup>. It lasted 53
days, relatively, that’s a long time. You know how on WhatsApp you have these
very long conversations in one day that you just keep scrolling and scrolling
and that day never seem to end? It was like that with her at first. It is like
that with me all the time, the conversations get shorter and shorter until they
cease to exist. And many times, even though I know I owe them an explanation
for leaving, I do not explain because I cannot explain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
2017, two of the things I hope to be more are consistent and committed. And so
I carried out this experiment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is a popular experiment called the Beach Blanket, developed by Tom Moriarty: When
a person left their beach blanket unattended and an item was stolen, only 1 in
5 people intervened. However, when the blanket owner made people commit by
asking them to look out for their belongings while they were gone, people
intervened 95% of the time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
aligned my experiment along Moriarty’s. I picked out fifteen people. Five of
them, I had not spoken to at all this year. Five of them, I said happy New Year
to on New Year’s Day, and Five of them, I had spoken with at least twice, or
seen, this year. I asked each of them how they were doing and then I told each
of them that I was embarking on a journey to Benin City the next day, which I was (journey
coincided nicely with experiment).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did
not say what my purpose for the journey was even though all but one asked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
wanted to measure if my problem was like my fiction: just a figment of my
imagination; if people readily committed to others better than I did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">They do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">All
the five people who I had not spoken with during the year called me after the
journey. Two of them called me twice during the journey. One called three times
during the journey and twice after: one time to ask how I was finding Benin
City and the second time to ask if I was suitably rested and do I like ‘their’
food? She is from here, so maybe there was a bias?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For
those who I had only said happy New Year to on New Year’s Day, four of them
called after the journey. Three called during the journey and one woke me up at
five am and said, ‘have you brushed your teeth? Hope you know the buses leave
here at six?' (here is Ilorin). When I asked what she was doing awake at five in the morning, she said
she asked two of her roommates to wake her up but they did not need to because
she was already awake a little bit before five o clock.(Humans are lovely!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For
those who I had spoken to a lot or seen this year, four of them called during
the journey, three after the journey and one just called again (I am typing the
first draft of this at 21:29 pm on Thursday by my hotel room window in Benin
City) and asked if I had found any ‘cute Benin Chicks yet.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These
results have shown me that yes, I have a problem, but no, my problem does not
mean that other people who are friends of mine are affected by it in such a way
that would make them not concerned about me as I am sometimes not concerned
about them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is a quote I saw once, ‘you always have two choices: your commitment versus
your fear.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
fear has dwarfed my commitment for too long. It is time to make a change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(Thanks
to everybody who (unknowingly) participated in my experiment).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-76621508999276432192017-01-01T22:55:00.000+01:002017-01-16T16:11:34.251+01:00Happiness, Joy and Love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When
I was asked to prospectively name my year, 2017, with three words, I decided:
Happiness, Joy and Love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is a difference between happiness and joy, to quote the author of The Catcher
in the Rye, JD Salinger, “The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most
singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and
joy a liquid.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
wish that 2017 would be the best year we have ever had. That we would find
happiness, that we would find happiness in such a profound way, we would
literally bask by it day after day after day; we would take it everywhere we
go, we would speak of it minute after minute after minute because it a thing
that is tangible, that is obvious, that is solid; that our happiness would bring
contentment, contentment that does not just mean we are fine with what we have
but that we are in absolute love with what we have and we can hardly imagine
anything else but.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That
we would find joy; that we would find the kind of joy that a child finds on the
day he sees a colourful kite flying past for the first time – that this joy we
find would intoxicate us, free us up, unbox us, unshackle us. The way the
little boy chasing this kite laughs and follows and follows and laughs and is
absolutely, irreverently beautiful chasing what is joy. I want to be the child
chasing the kite. I want joy like the badly produced nollywood movies where the
guy has been suffering all his life and finally gets a good job and 30 seconds
later new clothes and 30 seconds later a car and 30 seconds later a mansion and
30 seconds later the girl of his dreams, the sultan of his heart sauntering by
like a Christmas chicken on Christmas eve, still very unaware of tomorrow’s
fate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
wish we find love. Not love like Jane Austen novels, the love that matters. The
one that makes us feel, makes us understand, makes us. Love that would help us
empathize with people in bad places. I wish for the kind of love that trumps
hate at every single competition, over and over and over. That type that would
make us see that other people, even though ideologically different, feel things
too, just like us. The love that would make us understand that our differences
are but mere patterns that beautify our paths. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Happy New
Year!!!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-52255841394383302282016-12-31T21:45:00.002+01:002017-01-19T16:45:59.386+01:00Gyred Falcons and Labyrinths of Suffering: Books of 2016<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Every
year, since this blog was established in 2013, I do a brief review of some of
the books I read during the year and found most interesting. This year would be
no different. I read a lot of books in a 2016 that has been my busiest year in
a long time. They were mostly fiction, can you blame me? It felt as though the
more fire they were setting on the world, the more fiction I was reading. In fact
I came to a conclusion this year that there is nothing non-fiction books can do
for and to a person that fiction cannot do twice or three times more,
absolutely nothing.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From
the gyred falcons that were Ben and his brothers who could no longer hear their
falconer in The Fishermen to the Labyrinth of suffering that General Simon
Bolivar was desperate to get out of in his death in The General in his
Labyrinth, I present to you, dear readers, my books of 2016.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
Monster Calls</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
Monster Calls is a small novel written by Patrick Ness about a boy Conor
O’Malley, who was a victim of school bullying; and how he comes to terms with
his mother having cancer. Every 12:07 am Conor meets with a towering monster.
The monster claims he would help Conor by telling him three stories after which
Conor will tell the monster one of his own. As the story progresses, Conor’s
mother, who has been undergoing chemotherapy becomes worse. After all of the
Monster’s stories, Conor is forced to tell his and confront his personal
demons. The Monster Calls is a beautiful story of hope in times of troubles. It
is amazing how such a small story is able to mean so much. I think that is one
of the important things that stories can do for us. Here’s a nice excerpt:
Stories are important, the monster said. They can be more important than
anything. If they carry truth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Conor’s
mother eventually died at exactly 12.07 am, however, because of the stories, Conor
is able to accept it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.5 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
Is How You Lose Her</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
Is How You Lose Her is a book of short stories by the amazing Junot Diaz. The
first story I read from it was Alma, a fascinating, hilarious, extremely vivid,
playboy sort of story. I read it in 2014 as part of required reading for a
writing workshop I had attended. At that time I did not know that it was from a
book of stories but I found it brilliant and I laughed all through. During the
workshop I learnt that it was from a book of short stories by Junot Diaz and I
made a mental note to find it. I did not find it until May 2016. What I found
most fascinating about it was how Most of the stories, save for the first two, were
written in second person, You. I write in second person sometimes and I can
confirm that it is very difficult to keep up consistency writing in the second
person singular. The stories are a sort of satirical manual, for men on how not
to lose a girlfriend – but maybe it depends on who is reading, it could also be
a manual on how to be a player. Though the stories are fiction, they seem so
real and that is probably what Junot Diaz got right the most with this book.
This uncanny ability to make fiction seem like it is a memoir. I am going to
give a little excerpt for the first story in the collection so you get a feel
of what the book is like.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
first story in the anthology of nine stories is titled The Sun, The Moon, The
Stars and here is a short excerpt:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m
not a bad guy. I know how that sounds— defensive, unscrupulous— but it’s true.
I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good. Magdalena
disagrees though. She considers me a typical Dominican man: a sucio, an
asshole.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.9 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Diary
of a young girl</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is the story of Anne Frank, a little German-Jewish girl who was killed during
The Holocaust. Diary of a young girl, or Diary of Anne Frank, or formerly The
Secret Annex, describes her life in hiding as well as those of her immediate
family and family friends in a Secret Annex in Holland between 1942 and 1944
during the time Holland was occupied by the Germans in World War Two. The diary
is an honest account of what goes on in a teenage girl’s mind. The last few
pages though, the Afterword, was a little bit too much to take in within whatever
amount of time it takes for one to read three pages of writing. It told of what
happened to Anne after the Secret Annex was discovered and the occupants were
exposed and she had to stop making entries into her diary. They were deported
to a Nazi Concentration Camp and you would have to read the book to discover
what happened during that time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It feels sort of weird rating this
book, so I won’t<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">.</span> </span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Fishermen</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Fishermen irreverently asks its readers, page after page after page after page:
how much heartache can you take? How much heartache can you take? It is written
by the vastly talented Chigozie Obioma, it is one of the few Nigerian fiction
that I was able to read during the year. It was also shortlisted for the Man
Booker Prize in 2015. It is a story of four brothers growing up in Akure, Ondo
State in the 90s: Ikenna, Boja, Obembe and Benjamin, who narrates the story of
the fishermen. The Fishermen tells us how so ridiculously easily the strings that
bond a group of people together can be loosened. A madman called Abulu
prophesies that the oldest brother, Ikenna, would be killed by a fisherman and
that prophesy from a madman was all that was needed to destroy a once tightly woven
family. It is not just because this story is fascinating that makes it
beautiful, it is the precision of the author, the deliberateness of every
single word he uses. It is too easy to imagine that this was a memoir, but how
can it be? Many times, while reading, I closed the book and promised myself
that I had had enough of this shit, but the writing is too beautiful, the story
is too real to just dismiss it like that. The Fishermen is a story that forces
you to do things, very few books have that ability. It tells you, ‘this is
crushing, but you must move to the next page, you must read the next chapter.
You must see that Ikenna was killed, you must see that Boja killed himself, you
must see that their mother went insane, that Obembe and Ben …’ I must stop,
otherwise I would divulge everything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is a brilliant book. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">4 of 5</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is written by John Boyne. It is set in Nazi Germany
and Poland. It begins in Berlin with Bruno, a boy of ten, whose father is a
Nazi German Soldier, finding out he and his family are moving from their home
in Berlin and all his friends and going to live somewhere else; this occurs
after a short man whom Bruno refers to as ‘The Fury’ comes to their house with
his pretty wife to have dinner with his family. They move to this new place
called ‘Out With’ which is a concentration camp in Poland. He finds the place
immensely boring what with his lack of friends or acquaintances. In his
boredom, he decides to do a bit of ‘exploration’ and he stumbles upon a boy in
a striped pyjama, about his age, Schmuel. They become friends and the
consequence of their friendship to both of them is not nice. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
story is very simple. It is perhaps the simplest book about Nazi Germany and
Adolf Hitler that I have read. And this simplicity is present from the start of
the book to the end of it. and even in its simplicity, it is a very powerful
story that literally takes you back to the 1940s, while both boys, Bruno and
Schmuel, sit on different sides of the fence that seperates the concentration
camp from Bruno’s house, you get this feeling that you are right there sitting
with them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.8 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Alchemist</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Alchemist is written by Paulo Coehlo</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
story is about a shepherd boy from Andalusia who has recurring dreams of a
treasure lying underneath the Egyptian Pyramids. He meets with an old king and
he is offered some advice as well as a couple of magical stones. He embarks on
his journey to find the treasure crossing the Mediterranean and trudging the
Sahara desert. He meets swindlers, wars, helpers, friends and love. He learns
alchemy along the way and is assured that when a person truly wants something,
the universe conspires in his favour. The writing, maybe more than the story,
is an absolute beauty. The writer weaves his story line around finding
something he calls a Personal Legend (one’s purpose in life) dishing coats of
advice and guidance in styles that make you marvel at words and how so easily
they can be manipulated and made to act out all of one’s fantasies. However, I
did not find it to be free flowing. I got caught reading the same paragraphs
over and over and over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3 of 5 </span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Bridge
to Terabithia</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
had wanted to read Bridge to Terabithia ever since I saw one of those
Evangelical website review it poorly, saying it ‘apologetically portrays grief’
and words like ‘bitch’, ‘damn’ ‘cremation’ were used. I had not been able to
lay my hands on it until I finally found it this year – it was a beautiful read,
in all respects. It is written by Katherine Patterson. It is about two kids, Jess
Aarons and Leslie Burke who become neighbours and then schoolmates and then
friends, they create a magical kingdom which they call Terabithia. She is
smart, creative and from a wealthy family; while he is artistic, mature and
from a poorer family. It is one of the most frequently criticised and censored
books. As a matter of fact, it is number eight on the American Library
Association’s list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the Decade 1990 –
2000, a list which one of my all-time favourite books, Looking for Alaska,
which was reviewed last year, also falls in for the decade 2000 – 2010. It has been
adapted into movies – twice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Of
the writing, I feel that Katherine Patterson did a beautiful job of making the
book work as one that could be read by children and teenagers but also one that
could be thoroughly enjoyed by adults. It was simple and witty and contained one
of my characters of the year, Leslie Burke, who was, by equal measure, stunning
in intelligence and wit. The ending was sad because it was and it is always
difficult to come to terms with the loss of someone you have learned to love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.8 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
General in his Labyrinth</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
General in his Labyrinth is a book about the great revolutionist and liberator
of South America, Simon Bolivar. It is written by the phenomenal Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, rest his soul. It was sort of a difficult book to read due to the fact
that the novel was a labyrinth in its own right. Twisting and turning and
snaking and meandering through time until time itself is confused. The story
measures, with ruthless precision, the viciousness of politics and the concept
of politicking. One does not need to be South American therefore to relate to
the story. It talks about wars, triumph, defeat, love, celebrations, romance
and suffering, very importantly, suffering. The General as Simon Bolivar was
referred throughout the book, suffered a lot. Even in death his suffering
continued. On his deathbed, he made one of the most remarkable last words in
the history of last words, and then the way it was reproduced in Garcia
Marquez’s book is nothing short of phenomenal:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘The
General paid no attention to the masterful reply, because he was shaken by the
overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his
dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness.
"Damn it," he sighed. "How will I ever get out of this
labyrinth!"’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
labyrinth the general was talking about has been said to be very many things by
very many people. But for me (and Alaska Young from Looking for Alaska, I must
say), the labyrinth is suffering. Like, Alaska said, ‘Bolivar was talking about
the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of this labyrinth
of suffering? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Did
you notice the exclamation mark at the end of Bolivar’s sentence? I did too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.5 of 5</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My
Sister’s Keeper</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
2016 I read very many sad books. But none could compare in its utter
heartlessness and irreverence for happiness to My Sister’s Keeper. It was,
quite simply, crushing. It tells a story of a designer baby called Anna whose
sole reason for existing is so she can be a donor for her sister Kate who has a
rare form of Leukaemia. At thirteen, because thirteen year olds think of these
things, and because it’s time to donate one of her kidneys to Kate, she decides
to sue her parents to the court of law. She wants to be the owner of her own
body, she wants to decide for herself if she intends to donate an organ to her
sister, she wants to have a say. What I find most beautiful about the book is
that it is told from the point of view of all the different characters: Brian
(the father), Sara (the mother), Kate (the sick daughter), Ana (the designer
baby), Jesse (the brother), Campbell (the lawyer) etc. The book asks us
important questions: What does it mean to be a good parent? What does it mean
to be a good father? What does it mean to be a good person? Like, every parent
wants the best for their children, every parent knows that it is incorrect to
bury a child but is it ethically and morally justifiable to sort of taper the
life of one of your children in a bid to save the life of another one?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
are excerpt I like from Anna’s point of view:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
know how silence can push in at your eardrums in the dark, make you deaf?
That’s what happens, so that I almost miss mother’s answer. “For God’s sake,
Brian… whose side are you on?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
my father: “Who said there were sides?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
even I could answer that for him. There are always sides. There is always a
winner, and a loser. For every person who gets, there’s someone who must give.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
also has one of the most profound quotes on marriage I have ever seen in my
life:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
older couples, the ones sporting wedding bands that wink with their silverware,
eat without the pepper of conversation. Is it because they are so comfortable,
they already know what the other is thinking? Or is it because after a certain
point there is simply nothing left to say?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thinking
about the book brings emotions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was a sad book. Brilliant, but sad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.7 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If I Stay.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If
I Stay is written by Gayle Forman. It is about a seventeen year old, Mia, whose
whole life changes after her family is involved in a ghastly car crash. I read
a review from The Guardian which I found fascinating. I read this book because
of that review.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘Despite
her solid relationship with Adam, Mia has choices to make and she chooses to
apply for Julliard, one of the most prestigious music schools… even though it
is on the other side of the country. But all it takes is one snowy morning, a
family trip in the car, a lorry driver not looking the right way… And suddenly,
Mia has only one choice left.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Most
of the book had Mia unconscious seeing herself and her weight on others from a
perspective that was separate from herself. And so the most important theme was
making a choice between Leaving, which was rational considering that her whole
family was gone, and Staying, which was going to be respite for her friends and
an enablement to proceed with her career in music. The book is about loss,
about choices, about facing ones fears. The writing was somewhat uneven. There
were lots and lots of flashbacks and it sort of disturbed the consistency and
flow of the book. It was an okay read however. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would definitely recommend it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3 of 5</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Character of 2016</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Last
year, my favourite character was Cash Daddy from Adaobi Tricia Nwabuani’s I Do
Not Come To You By Chance. This year I finally, FINALLY read all seven books
from the Harry Potter Series. They are beautiful, all seven of them, they are
absolutely beautiful stories. My favourite character this year deserves a
separate mention because of how captivating he is. His name is Albus Percival
Wulfric Brian Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series. Even though he died at
the end of Half Blood Prince, he is still one of the most influential and
inspiring characters in all of fiction. From words to action Albus Dumbledore
is definitely a literary personality I would give anything to spend thirty
minutes of real life with.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-20052482911738698712016-12-29T13:40:00.004+01:002017-01-19T16:57:30.593+01:00Your Year (2016)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
January, you were anxious. It was the official start of life ‘back in school’
and you were anxious to know what obstacles lay ahead. You were starting off on
another course completely and your mind was ablaze with questions: Would it be
easy? Would it be difficult? Would you get some sleep? You were anxious because
of How to be A Person. You thought that you may be too busy to find time for
those stories even though they meant so much to you.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
February, you were sleepless. You were not sleepless because you had important
stuff to do through the night, you were sleepless because you could not sleep.
It was the worst that it had ever been in your life. You got vertigo and the
world was swirling around you. You also had a seminar to present and you were
ready, but the vertigo made sure you could not move a muscle without falling to
the ground, like you were perpetually drunk. The vertigo disappeared
eventually, and you were back to normal. You made your seminar presentation and
it was not the best presentation you had ever made in your life, however, you
were content. It was not that bad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
March, you were doubtful. You had exams coming up and you were doubtful. Had
you prepared enough? Was it going to be tough? Was the vertigo going to come
back? You thought a lot about How to be a Person, but it was quite difficult to
write anything because you hardly even had time for yourself. School work was
taking everything from you. You did not mind too much: you asked for it. Nobody
put a gun to your head and said go and start an MPH.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
April, you were studious. Exams came and went and they weren’t so bad that you
would not do well, you imagined. After, you had about a month of schoolessness
and so you decided to continue working on How to be a Person. It felt like you
had left the stories on their own for so long, they had also left you; and so
you stared at your computer and your stories stared at you like they had never
seen you before and they wanted to have nothing to do with you for the
remainder of their lives. You did not know where to turn, what to write. You
were stuck.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
May, you were playful. It was all about poetry, music and Google for you in
May. You turned your back on your stories as they had decided to turn their
backs on you. They lay fallow in their folder assured that you would never
touch them again and you played away resignedly, assured that all those stories
you love so much would be another victim of your recycle bin. It sucked but you
drowned yourself in Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. You
wanted to master all the stanzas and all one hundred and something lines, as if
doing that will make it better to live with yourself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
June, you were happy. It was your birthday month and it was a milestone age and
so you felt happy and thankful that you were alive. Also, you were happy
because you were getting back to the process of making progress with How to be
a person. You began by editing some of the stories you had finished and from
there you continued with some of those you stopped abruptly. On your birthday
you went for a walk and then you went to the mall where you met someone who broke
your breakup record. Life was bright and beautiful for the first time in 2016. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
July, you were broken. You stopped being friends with someone you did not think
you knew how to not be friends with. You did that a lot this year, you lost
more friends this year than you had your whole life, put together. It is
important to say here: there is nothing more suffocating than holding on to a
friendship that has let go of you. It was in July also that you finished The
Harry Potter Series, it was one of your new year resolutions to start and
finish all seven Harry Potter Books. They were phenomenal, those stories. You
fell in love with J.K. Rowling.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
August, you were lazy. Exams were coming but you were lazy. You wanted to keep
reading fiction and poetry as you had been doing for most of the year. You had
Writer’s Block and everything irritated you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You finished My Sister’s Keeper early in August and you were closest to
shedding a tear as you had ever been after reading fiction. You decided that
fiction is better than non-fiction. That fiction can teach you so much more
than non-fiction. You thought about marriage, you saw the best quote on
marriage you had ever seen and it went “The older couples, the ones sporting
wedding bands that wink with their silverware, eat without the pepper of
conversation. Is it because they are so comfortable, they already know what the
other is thinking? Or is it because after a certain point, there is simply
nothing left to say?” you decided that it was because of the later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
September, you were scared. Your exams for your second semester came and went
and they were okay in that average way that you had told yourself that you
would not be associated with anymore. You were down a bit and so after the last
exam you had to find silly excuses to disappear, you disappeared for a few
minutes. For some reason, you felt that those minutes you disappeared for were
very important, it was hard because you had developed the kind of company for
which disappearing was difficult and for the first time in your whole life, you
did not mind that much. You drowned yourself in reading. How to be a person was
teaching you all over again that writing is hard. You wanted to write. You
wanted to talk. But at the same time, you wanted to be alone and do nothing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
October, you were thinking. You began a field posting that you thought you
would find interesting but it ended up not being all that. Donald Trump was
worrying you like a bad dream worries a child. His rhetoric was difficult to
come to terms with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was hard to
understand how such a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sucio, </i>an
asshole would get so close to the most important office in the whole world and
what was worse: he was being cheered on. You read books and you wrote stories.
You read about Adolf Hitler’s rise in Nazi Germany in the 40s and the
similarities were so striking with the rise of Trump. You began to pray that
even if Trump became president of America, the world would not have any course
to remember Adolf Hitler.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
November, you were astounded. Donald Trump became president elect of the United
States of America and you were astounded. You sat in front of the television
and repeatedly told yourself that you would wake up from this bad dream in
thirty minutes and you would sigh and smile and say ‘Damn, I just had the worst
nightmare.’ But it was not a dream. Donald Trump was to become president of
America after the first Black president: somebody on CNN called it a ‘white-lash’
and you could not agree more. You were sad. You were also astounded because it
seemed as though the whole world was going insane. We were rationalizing
everything. There was a lynching in Nigeria and we were trying to rationalize
it, the insurgency in the north east peaked and many people died and we were
trying to rationalize it and we were saying ‘soft targets’, the worst was
Aleppo- we were mute.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
December, you are hoping. You are hoping for a better 2017 because honestly
2016 has not been such a good year, especially compared to 2015. There is a lot
you intend to achieve in the coming year and you are hoping. You are calm, too
because that is about the best thing you can do. You can only be calm as you
hope, you can’t be anything else.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">*Thank
you for reading my blog this year. May 2017 be better! </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-9274654436189341682016-12-23T10:45:00.002+01:002016-12-23T10:45:17.329+01:00The Trend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I wrote a screenplay for a shot film. It was completed earlier this month. The story is basically one about how parents pressure if not force marriage on their female children as soon as they reach a certain age; women who may not be ready for marriage at that time. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It was written for The Message Production, which is a film production company that is dedicated to making films that count. the short film is titled The Trend and you can watch below.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pwkVPuaXXmY/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pwkVPuaXXmY?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-7244439946147356642016-12-18T05:40:00.001+01:002016-12-18T05:40:19.138+01:00On Being Good <p dir="ltr">In the middle of the night when you can’t sleep because sleep has never been your friend and you are thirsty because you do not have drinking water in the house and there is no electricity because the purveyors of electricity are inept and the government is inept and you are ashamed that you supported them during the elections, you imagine about good people and wonder if you are one. You have had this argument with yourself very many times and you just want to put an end to it. Like, if the world had a giant brown notebook with ‘Register of Good People’ written over the top in blue ink, would your name be in it? <br>
This question has been asked very many times: what is the definition of a good person, like, what does it take to be a good person? Is a good person someone who does not drink alcohol, for example? But alcohol seems too trivial a thing to judge a good person by, just like smoking, just like womanizing. Isn’t it possible to be an alcoholic and be a good person at the same time? - A smoker and a good person at the same time? - A womanizer and a good person at the same time?<br>
When I was a child, my definitions of what made people bad and good were way too broad and narrow respectively; these ideas were greatly influenced by my keenly pious mother, whom I love so much. For example, in my mind, you were a bad person if you consumed alcohol, if you watched any movie that was not gospel, if you listened to any music that was not gospel, if you watched Channel O, if you were a lady and you wore trousers and used attachments and wore lipstick and stuff. These days, however, my ideas of good and bad are not as streamlined as before, for example, I hardly think that religiousness has anything to do with being a good person: One of the best people I have ever met is agnostic, and some of the worst human beings I know are devout Muslims and Christians. So, no, religiousness is not a determining factor.<br>
But how do you even define being good? In my mind, a good person is kind, is not afraid of putting others before himself/herself, is humane and so is able to empathize with people, understands pain and suffering and grief (even though he or she may not know what the right reaction to these things are, the important thing is understanding).<br>
Therefore, it does not really matter here what variant God one bows to.<br>
Are there advantages to being good? Like, is there something to be gained by trying to do the right thing and feel people’s pain at all times? I don’t think so, but at the same time, I don’t think it matters. I think a lot of us get it wrong here. We exhibit kindness because we expect a reward in return. In church they tell you to sow bountifully so that we shall reap bountifully: ‘sow a seed to proceed’ and that’s why many of us give tithes and offerings, because we want to be rewarded by God. How about you just be kind and be good because it is the right thing to do?<br>
I read of a Sufi woman by name Rabe’a al-Adiwiyah, she was a saint of Sufism. She was seen running through the streets of Basra carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. Someone asked what she was doing and she said she was going to pour the bucket of water on the flames of hell and use the torch to set paradise on fire so that people will not believe in God for want of heaven or avoidance of hell, but believe because He is God. <br>
What a story, right?<br>
How about we try to be good and do good not because our God wants us to do these things but because these things are the correct things to do in every situation? In my mind, you are only as humane, as kind, as good as your heart is and you cannot say your heart is humane and kind and good if the only reason it is these things is because it knows a reward is coming.<br>
Be safe and be kind to other people!</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-2362863476516992102016-12-10T14:25:00.000+01:002016-12-10T14:25:11.944+01:00Musings on a Sweltering December Afternoon<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">My
house is a few paces off a busy highway where there is always heavy traffic. And
every second, even right as I type this, under the scorching sun of a 12.30 pm
harmattan-less December afternoon in Ilorin, I hear those kids hawking, jumping
from one moving car’s window to another, to another, to another, screaming ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pure water tutu wa</i>’ dressed either in
rags or makeshift clothing torn at every considerable part but hard to call a
rag because at least it is wholesome. They do this all day and every day. I wonder
very often if they have ever entered into any sort of educational institution,
if they have plans to. I wonder where they would be in the next, say, twenty
years– they would probably not hawk pure water to speeding cars anymore, maybe
not, maybe they would have gotten better ways to make more money and or maybe
they would no longer be under the guardianship of the individual that makes
them hawk pure water in this kind of sweltering weather. Maybe at that time,
they would have become the guardian. It is pure water, there is not much to be
made from it: if they are lucky to sell a bag of 20 a day, they make two
hundred naira, two hundred naira cannot buy a dozen biscuits anymore. It is
hard not to think about these things if you live where I live and cannot think
about anything for one second without getting distracted by a little girl
shouting ‘pure water.’ A boy once carried a red bowl on his head and sat on the
curb between the two lanes, he had eight sachets of pure water in the bowl. I asked
how old he was, he was seven. I asked how long he had been standing, he had
been standing since morning. I bought all eight sachets from him and told him
to go home. I came out ten minutes later and saw same boy with same bowl on
same head but with new sachets. I passed. It is not a serious problem when the
people that have the problem do not consider that they have a problem.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
just saw two tweets I found interesting because I have a significant problem
with Twitter on Saturdays: I can’t stay off. The first tweet is by a lady, she
tweets: I don’t think there’s any amount of love in this world that will make
me marry poor tbqh, and I don’t apologize for this sentiment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is an interesting tweet for two reasons, i. Poverty is relative; the poverty of
some is the life dream of others. ii. Love is also relative. I have never felt
it, but I can tell you for free that there are shades of love, degrees of love
that can get you to do the stupidest things (or in this case, the things you
never thought you could do.) I preach, usually, that if you cannot afford to
take care of yourself and two others, you have absolutely no business thinking
about marriage. And on a personal basis, it should work both ways; meaning that
I can take care of two others and my wife can take care of two others. So that
we can both take care of ourselves and four other people as at the point of
marriage. But here is the thing I have learnt so much in this absolute plane
crash of a year that 2016 has turned out to be: Everybody. Is. Different. I
know people who get married with nothing and they build themselves from the
bottom up, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">together</i>. I respect that. I
do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
second tweet was from a church account, name withheld, the church tweeted:
TESTIMONY: By faith, medical protols are broken with the delivery of 2 bouncing
boys when gynaecological scans confirmed them to be girls.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This
tweet is interesting because it brazenly tells that boys are better than girls,
and it is a TESTIMONY when you do not have a girl child. There are no other ways
to look at it unless you want to look away because it is your church or it is your
Daddy in the Lord who is the Oga at the top– and you jump when he tells you
that he wanna see jumping or you let him spray your eyes with insecticide or
you let him sleep with your wife because she has evil spirit. :’). There is no
miracle here. Churches these days seem to seek out avenues to show how they are
in some sort of competition with medicalization. But it doesn’t have to be a
competition, both institutions could cohabit happily: in this tweet, for
example: how about the sonographer was simply wrong (as they often are)?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You
may see it differently, as I said: Everybody is different.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is now twenty minutes past two and I have nothing else to say but to ask you to
be safe and be kind.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-28495404375758688892016-11-26T17:40:00.002+01:002016-11-26T17:40:37.322+01:00Maybe We Should All Be Feminists<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
wanted to blog about a poem by William Ernest Henley called Invictus until I found
(and read) an essay I had always wanted to read by the legend Chimamanda
Adichie titled We Should All Be Feminists. In this essay, Adichie discusses our
society, in a most candid way, as it reacts and relates to males versus
females. She describes the way society treats men and compares it to the way it
treats women. I have never gotten up to the point of describing myself as a
feminist. I see feminism exactly the way I see human rights, they are brilliant
ideas, but the problem is I am Nigeria and the truth is Nigeria will not robustly
achieve feminism, or human rights, in my children’s generation. Adichie paints
a beautiful picture in her essay that I want everybody to see. For this reason,
I would quote a tiny portion of the essay here for you, however, the essay is
in public domain and you can easily get it if you want. This portion tells
about marriage and how society sort of ‘drives’ (action word) a woman into marriage.
Her readiness is inconsequential. Her ambitions are inconsequential. Her feelings
are inconsequential. Ultimately, she is just an inconsequential side effect of
society’s disregard and disrespect for the idea of womanhood. More often than
not, because society is in a hurry to get rid of every single young lady out
there, many single young ladies are driven into the hands (or life) of men who
care nothing about them and would treat them like garbage. </span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A Nigerian acquaintance once asked
me if I was worried that men would be intimidated by me. I was not worried at
all—it had not even occurred to me to be worried, because a man who will be
intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Still, I was struck by this.
Because I am female, I’m expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make
my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important.
Marriage can be a good thing, a source of joy, love, and mutual support. But
why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, but we don’t teach boys to do the
same?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I know a Nigerian woman who decided
to sell her house because she didn’t want to intimidate a man who might want to
marry her.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I know an unmarried woman in
Nigeria who, when she goes to conferences, wears a wedding ring because she
wants her colleagues to—according to her—“give her respect.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The sadness in this is that a
wedding ring will indeed automatically make her seem worthy of respect, while
not wearing a wedding ring would make her easily dismissible—and this is in a
modern workplace.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I know young women who are under so
much pressure—from family, from friends, even from work—to get married that
they are pushed to make terrible choices.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our society teaches a woman at a
certain age who is unmarried to see it as a deep personal failure. While a man
at a certain age who is unmarried has not quite come around to making his pick.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is easy to say—but women can
just say no to all this. But the reality is more difficult, more complex. We
are all social beings. We internalize ideas from our socialization.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even the language we use
illustrates this. The language of marriage is often a language of ownership,
not a language of partnership.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We use the word respect for
something a woman shows a man but often not for something a man shows a woman.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Both men and women will say:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I did it for peace in my marriage.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When men say it, it is usually
about something they should not be doing anyway.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Something they say to their friends
in a fondly exasperated way, something that ultimately proves to them their
masculinity—“Oh, my wife said I can’t go to clubs every night, so now, for
peace in my marriage, I go only on weekends.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When women say “I did it for peace
in my marriage,” it is usually because they have given up a job, a career goal,
a dream.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We teach females that in
relationships, compromise is what a woman is more likely to do.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We raise girls to see each other as
competitors—not for jobs or accomplishments, which in my opinion can be a good
thing—but for the attention of men…</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">See
you next time!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-54737918701957062892016-11-18T02:59:00.001+01:002016-11-18T12:42:26.415+01:00On Lynching and Rationalization<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
have a friend who argues that the average person, in a subconscious way, likes
to see the blood of someone like himself: this means that, for example, the
average poor Nigerian likes to see another poor Nigerian bleeding. Her explanations
for this argument are usually very expansive. They involve ideas that the mind
of an average person is not kind: a person is not kind by default, he is not
good by default, he learns these things, but at the same time, he is not bad by
default or wicked by default either, he learns this, too. And since the world
tends to lean towards wickedness than towards kindness, he is more readily
taught to be wicked than he is taught to be kind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is an interesting theory especially if you consider how very carefully she
lays and concretizes it. I was of the
opinion that as children, we are born innocent and innocent often means good. But
I have had cause to rethink the whole thing and now I do not know what to
think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
was another lynching that was recorded and shared on social media during the
week. God only knows how many lynching occur on a consistent basis and do not
make it online. Firstly the story was that that the young man who was murdered
was 7 years old and all he stole was garri (cassava flakes). After that there
was another story that he was not 7 years old and it was not just garri he
stole it was a laptop, he also stabbed the person he was stealing from. And he
was a chronic conman because this was not his fist time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
do not know which of these two stories is correct, I do not care which of the two stories is correct. I could not
watch the video, same way I could not watch the Aluu4 video. There are so many
things unsettling about watching those kinds of videos. There are also so many
things unsettling and incorrect and devilish about choosing to bring out your
phone to record people who are in the process of killing other people. And so,
yes, if you are reading this, and the first thing that occurs to you when you
see a lynching happening is to take out your phone and record, you are no
better than the murderers and I don’t know how you sleep at night.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
saw the news trending on Twitter for the first time on Wednesday, I think. I resolved
in my mind that I would ignore it. There were already people talking about it
and it was not as if I could talk about it better than they were and also, I thought
I had reacted to enough sadness and negativity in the month of November already
and I was not about to react to anymore. However, on Thursday, I read some
tweets about the incident that were very disturbing. The camp that believed
that the person who was lynched was a bad guy and laptop stealer and a person
stabber etc were attempting to defend the lynching and they tweeted things like
‘reasons why you shouldn’t feel bad for the way they lynched that guy…..’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
would love to understand how the mind of someone who attempts, even in the
mildest of ways, to justify a lynching works. The word Lynching is said to
originate from a slave owner who lived in the West Indies sometime in the early
1700s, Willie Lynch. He devised an impeccable method of controlling the minds
of his slaves. And so when the slave masters in Virginia were having problems
with their slaves, they called for him to teach them how he was able to get the
best of his own slaves. (Here is a <a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/Willie_Lynch_letter_The_Making_of_a_Slave.shtml">Link</a> to a speech said to have been delivered by Willie Lynch to the slave owners of Virginia.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
following paragraph is a gory read.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><i>Single
out the most stubborn, most chaotic, most annoying slave in your farm. Take off
all his clothes and make sure that he is completely naked; also, make sure that
this is happening in the presence of all the other slaves. Tie each of the
stubborn slave’s legs to two horses facing opposite directions. Set the
stubborn slave on fire. and as you do that, beat both horses until they begin
to move, to the point that they tear the stubborn slave in two parts. Beat all the
other slaves brainless. Put fear in their minds. You control them</i>. (You may
want to read John Grisham’s Sycamore Row if you want more of this twisted,
twisted, twisted analysis of slavery)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That
was painful to write.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">So
that’s where the word lynching comes from. The idea is to control, to torment,
to torture. So when you see somebody getting lynched and you decide to
rationalize it as probably a good idea, maybe it will be wiser of you not to
share your stupid thoughts with the rest of the world because once you share
that thought, you are propagating the devilishness of Willie Lynch.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Also
as you attempt to rationalize the devilishness by whether the guy who they
killed was a garri thief or a laptop thief, an innocent young man who just
happened to be hungry or a human being stabber, a 7 year old child or a 30 year
old adult man with a childish physique; Let me assure you that all of it is
your mind trying to think of excuses to make something that is wrong on every
level conceivable not so wrong. It is like the staring very attentively at a
white wall to see if it could be turned into black. I have nothing to say to
you. Just pray that you don’t fall a victim of your own rationalizations one
day.</span></div>
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<![endif]--><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-5481268317889785722016-11-13T21:54:00.000+01:002016-11-13T21:54:00.862+01:00Love trumps hate<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
world has become a significantly suckier place to live in since the US
elections on Tuesday. Donald Trump will become the next president of the United
States of America. The man basically bullied and insulted his way to that
office. I do not care what you think, it is not okay to be a provocateur, it is
not okay to be a bully, it is not okay to think and preach that some human
beings are better than other human beings. I do not care what you think. All
these characteristics were manifested by the next president of America, not
once, not even twice, but over and over and over. Yet he won.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
saw that election, in a most elementary form, as a battle between good and
evil. Evil triumphed. But don’t get me wrong, I personally do not like Hillary
Clinton, and I do not and will never see her as good; however, in many cases, there
is so much you can tell about a person by their utterances. Trump’s utterances
were nothing short of uncouth. I am not sure I care so much about what his
administration and actual governance would look like, I care more about the
fact that he was able to win after being such an asshole to so many different
people from so many different works of life; the fact that he was able to win
an election after saying so many vulgar, unimaginable things unbecoming of even
an eight year old child. Things that if your eight your old child had said you
would have been ashamed and would have to scold him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What
the hell do you tell that child now–? Do you tell him that he cannot be a bully?
So what happens when he responds, ‘but dad, the president of America is a bully’?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you tell him to respect women? But the
person who would become the most influential man on earth by January 2017
thinks women are objects who can be grabbed by their genitals: his precise
words are too disgusting to be repeated. What the hell do you tell your
children?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
has been arguments online about the fact that his opponent was not a suitable
alternative and about how leftists were very one dimensional in their reasoning
and expected so unwaveringly that they would get victory. At a point in the
second debate, Hillary was so upbeat: jiggling her shoulders and laughing at
this man who she probably thought was going to get zero vote. I think this goes
beyond leftism. Americans were faced with a tough choice but one of those
choices, to a large extent, seemed to be doing everything to lose, but still,
he won.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
made fun of the disabled. It was disgusting to watch. He hinted that veterans
who got PTSD were weak. It was disgusting to imagine. He said that when you are
famous, you can assault women: for this, the man he said it to lost his job,
but, he, Donald Trump still ran for president (and won.) The New York times
made a two page spread of the people and organisations and ideas that he had
insulted or dissed since he announced his candidacy (that is two full newspaper
spread of insults.) he has called women ‘dogs’ ‘slobs’ ‘pigs’. He said about a
woman, ‘you could see there is blood coming out of her wherever;’ and another
woman who ran against him in the republican primaries ‘Look at that face. Would
anyone vote for that?’ even Pope Francis got a dose of this retard’s idiocy. And
finally, because I am Nigerian, I have had a few friends ask why it concerns me
so much. I find that a fairly irritating question. We are talking about a man
who thinks that climate change is a hoax. Who tweeted that “The concept of
global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S.
manufacturing non-competitive.” How does it concern me?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is shocking that people would rather have that retard lead them. But I have
learnt that you cannot judge people based on their opinion as everybody has the
right to an opinion. (Except when you are being an asshole, you can keep them
to yourself.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, no, I have
nothing to say to Americans who voted him. My trouble is that having ran such a
vitriolic, disabled-shaming, non-white-shaming, Muslim-shaming, Islam-shaming,
women-shaming, campaign, the fact that he won means that there is so much more
wrong with the world than we thought. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">America,
I wish you the best. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">No matter what, love trumps hate.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-87946194490997327172016-10-14T21:07:00.000+01:002016-10-15T09:29:10.328+01:00...that Utopia is Inexistent<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have been wondering about sad books for a little while now. I think it started
sometime in August when I finished a novel called My Sister’s Keeper by Jodie
Picoult, a novel which just shattered me into a million pieces. Currently, I am
reading a book called If I Stay by Gayle Forman and I am hardly fifteen pages
in but I am already getting heartbroken. I am just going to share a paragraph from
it here to give a feel of the first few pages of the book:</span>
<br>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I see Dad first. Even from several
feet away, I can make out the protrusion of the pipe in his jacket pocket.
“Dad,” I call, but as I walk toward him, the pavement grows slick and there are
gray chunks of what looks like cauliflower. I know what I’m seeing right away
but it somehow does not immediately connect back to my father. What springs
into my mind are those news reports about tornadoes or fires, how they’ll
ravage one house but leave the one next door intact. Pieces of my father’s
brain are on the asphalt.”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Here’s
something else: the narrator is not ‘intact’, she’s also extremely hurt but I will
leave it at that for the time being.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
why do we like sad books?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
feel it is worse for me because I tend to seek out sad books. I make conscious efforts
to search for and find sad books. On kindle I search for the tag ‘sad’, I go on
goodreads.com and search for books before buying, I look for quotes that seem
sad, I find sad taglines and such things. When I go to bookstores, I read
blurbs for hours of a plethora on books to seek out which ones I envisage could
be the saddest and buy them. I am a sucker for sad stories. And here is the
thing, I am not alone. Many people prefer heart-wrenchingly, paralyzingly sad
books to the happier, sugary ones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have a few things to say on this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There’s
a Greek term in the field of dramatic art called Catharsis which basically
describes the effects that tragedy (and comedy) have on the audience. The dictionary
defines Catharsis as I would like to describe it for the purpose of this post: ‘the
act or process of purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear)
primarily through art.’ For me, I see it as this: We come to sad stories
because we want to be relieved of something even if that something may only
exist in our minds or in our thoughts. I read sad books because they tend to
have this ability to cleanse me of infirmities that are only emotional in
existence. I am purged when I read a sad book. It is a somewhat difficult
concept, I must confess.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Also,
when things are too happy, they seem unreal, unnatural. A sad book is something
that is likelier to happen in the real world because the world is actually a
sad, messed up place where bad things happen to good people. Life is not a bed
of roses and sad books remind us of this. Happily ever afters, most of the time,
only ever happens in fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White and Rapunzel
(and Shrek). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
enjoy a book that takes my emotions on a rollercoaster journey. I need
characters that are flawed, just like me, broken, just like me. I want to be
able to sympathize with a character in a book because life is happening to him,
because life is happening to her as it happens to every other person. I want to
be able to question the things that I have accepted with open arms before and I
want the writer to give me a fantastic reason to question those things. I want
to be told by a good story that many times, life is no utopia: that utopia is
inexistent, that happiness is not a butterfly and that it is okay for things
not to be perfect.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-27548369212638833942016-10-01T17:48:00.001+01:002016-10-01T17:48:27.374+01:00Happiness Is Not A Butterfly<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘I
hate you, I wish to never see you again,’ she said the words as though they
were meant to leave her mouth and transform into a machete and slash your
throat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
day you met her, the rain began suddenly. The clouds became dark and saturated
like cotton-wool dipped in iodine. You were walking back to your off campus
apartment from class and she was walking back to somewhere from somewhere. You
scurried for cover when it began to rain – you found a shade by the Social
Science Lecture Theatre. She joined you seconds later, she was drenched already
and you wanted to ask her what the point of finding a shade was since she was
already that soaked, it made you laugh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘What
is funny?’ She asked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Oh
I’m sorry. It has nothing to do with you.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘It
better not,’ she hissed. Apparently, the rain, apart from having soaked her,
had also enraged her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘You
don’t have to take your anger out on me,’ you said, ‘it’s not my fault that you
got drenched.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘But
you were laughing at me.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘I
was not laughing at you, I was laughing at something I thought about.’ You lied.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Yea,
right.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Would
you like a handkerchief?’ You said, extending your napkin to her and for the
first time, getting a glimpse of her face. She looked like an October afternoon,
the way her hair made a bun behind her head and the wetness glued a strand to her
forehead, the way her Indigo coloured T-shirt had “Mobile Orchestra” written over
it and a set of trumpets painted beneath the writing, the way her nails were
polished purple and the way her black jean trouser stopped just before her
ankle and her yellow, watermarked sandals had red sand on them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She
collected the handkerchief, ‘thank you.’ She wiped water off her arms and then
off her face, very gently, so that she would not also wipe off her makeup, then
she adjusted the strand of hair that had been plastered on her forehead so that
it went behind her ear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘You
look beautiful,’ you said. She looked at you and suppressed an urge to smile
then returned your napkin. ‘How do you do that?’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Do
what?’ She asked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Suppress
a smile so effortlessly.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She
laughed. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Really,
you should not do that. There are probably a million scientific researches that
prove that doing that is bad for you. What’s your name?’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Grace.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘My
name is Jake; short for Jacob.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Your
first date was to the cinema where you both saw an action movie. You thought it
was gory and violent and had too many guns and had too many people killing
people, and she thought it was awesome. Your second date was to the zoo, you
liked the baby possums, their cuteness was affective, she liked the lions and
she recorded the sound of their roars and used it as her ringtone. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
was after you had spent three months together that you knew she was special and
so you needed to breakup with her: You were both seated on a bench under a neem
tree in a park and a butterfly, the variegated colour of a snail’s shell,
landed on her lap. She smiled. ‘Someone once said that Happiness is a
butterfly; if you try to chase it, you may never catch it, However, sometimes,
you could be sitting under a tree, chatting with the love of your life and
minding your business and it comes and alights on your lap. You are my
happiness, Jacob.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You
smiled because you did not know how else to react. You did not want to be
anybody’s happiness the same way you did not want anybody to be your happiness.
She was becoming everything, but nobody could become that because you had promised
yourself that you would never let anyone get so close to you that they could
hurt you. When you were eight years old, your mother left. She took off with a
rich man and left you with your father. You never recovered because she was everything,
she was heaven in the most golden, glorified definition of the place; she just
up and left you alone and cold like a chewing gum whose flavour had been chewed
off of it. Years later, you decided that life was better lived without
attachments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">That
morning, when she called to ask if you were home because she wanted to come
over, it took you a minute to say yes, you were home and she could come, you
knew you had to do it that day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘I’m
sorry, Grace.’ You said after she had said that she never wanted to see you
again and she had stood up and had picked up her bag and had faced the wall and
had begun to sob.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘Do
you know what your problem is?’ She asked and you wondered if the question was
supposed to be a rhetorical one. ‘You think you are immune to love. You think
you are impervious. But you are not, you see? Nobody is.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">You
wanted her to leave; you did not want to hear those theories of hers that she
choked people with: This person thinks too little of himself. That person walks
as though heaven and earth was created only for her. ‘I am sorry,’ you said
again. ‘This just can’t work, you are a good girl, Grace. You deserve way
better than me.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">She
finally left. She left the way twilight leaves at dusk: the way darkness usurps
the lavender: even though you would rather not have it, you cannot stop the
darkness from taking over and so you have to let go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Happiness
is not a butterfly, you said to yourself after she left. You do not sit down
and wait for it because you may be served with something that you do not want.
Happiness is the prerogative of each individual. You find your own or you let
your own go, maybe someone else would find it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-28758702469723436602016-09-29T15:26:00.000+01:002016-09-29T15:26:12.473+01:00Of Small Job and Big Power<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
find the complete arrogance and impudence shown by people who have tiny jobs such
as security guards, cleaners, secretaries, nurses, bankers and so on mildly
disturbing. They seem to love to wield power even though they have little of it.
I first wrote about this three years ago in a blog post I titled Misuse of
Power, you may check it out <a href="http://www.diaryofbomiehimony.blogspot.co.ke/2013/06/misuse-of-power.html?m=0">here</a>. Perhaps that was not an apt title because
these people do not really have any power, they are just angry people who like
to give others a hard time. </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sometimes
bankers, especially tellers, are the worst. They are like those dementors in
Harry Potter, they soak away ones happiness and replace it with moodiness and
edginess and an urge to snap their necks. One of the most interesting things
about bankers is that none of the monies they bandy about is theirs. Can you
imagine being able to see all that money but not being able to touch any of it;
it is kind of like being a door. Doors are what I consider to be the saddest,
SADDEST things in the history of sad things. They let people into the party but
they never attend the party themselves. Lucky they have no feelings. Bankers are
like doors the way they are able to see but not touch. It does often seem like
such a sad job and this is why sometimes one cannot blame them when they act
like utter idiots:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘I
want to deposit some money.’ Person says to a teller whose face looks like a painting
palette: There’s more makeup than face. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Teller
stretches her hands. Badly bleached. Black knuckles. Black wrists. Fair arm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Person
hands teller some money as well as the deposit slip.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Teller
hands it back. ‘You should give me the money first before the slip.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘What
difference does it make?’ Person says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘Are
you teaching me my job?’ Teller says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Person
takes a deep breath: Hands teller cash, then shortly after, hands teller
deposit slip.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Teller
looks through the slip. ‘It is not dated.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Person
collects slip and scribbles the date: Hands back to teller.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘You
did not write the account name properly.’ Teller says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘It
is my account, I am depositing some money to myself, besides, what do you need
the account name for, your business is with the account number.’ Person says.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘Excuse
me;’ Teller shouts. ‘I will not tolerate you teaching me my job.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Person
takes a deep breath, collects slip, looks at the clearly legible account name and
draws a line over it then rewrites it above the cancelled one. He hands it back
to the teller.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘I
am sorry,’ Teller says. ‘This is too rough. You will have to fill another
deposit slip.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Person
asks for Account closure form and closes the account. One customer bank loses
one customer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">C’est Fini!</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is such a bad thing, it runs from the security guards who stand huffishly by
the gate with their stained white shirts and their dark blue trousers and tell
you that you cannot go inside and ask ‘what can you do?’ and ‘Who do you think
you are?’ when you attempt to argue with them, to the secretaries who wear Ankara
prints from the last <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ileya</i> festival to
work and tell you in their saucy, impertinent voices: ‘you cannot see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oga</i> right now because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oga</i> is in a meeting, you must go and
come back tomorrow or the day after or next year or never ever.’ Or ‘You must
be stupid to think that I will let you into my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oga</i>’s office, do you want to fight me? Come and fight me now,
useless man. I will call the security to get rid of you. Nonsense!’ Meanwhile <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oga</i> is in his office and has absolutely
no clue what his dumb secretary has been saying to his visitors. This impudence
on the part of tiny, miniscule, insignificant employees trickles all the way
up, quite unfortunately, to nurses in hospitals. High-heeled and brainless are
many nurses on most working days especially in public hospitals. They spend all
day shaving their nails and painting their faces and talking about other people’s
businesses and shouting abuses at poor, miserable patients who have no choice
but to tolerate the maltreatment. ‘Doctor is busy right now. You are going to
have to exercise some patience. You are going to have to tell me what your
sickness is. What are your symptoms?’ They say, as if they have anything inside
their head, shaking their overly made up faces so vigorously, you fear that the
makeup would fall out of the face. It is often irrelevant what the severity of
the patient’s plight is. The doctor is always busy. If you can’t tell me what
your problem is, then you may die here for all I care. Sometimes, nurses are
the worst.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
a final note, I do have some friends who are nurses and it is fair to say some
nurses, just as I am sure it is with a few bankers and some secretaries and
some security guards, are absolutely delightful and lovable human beings. The problem
is that it is easy to generalize when some parts are bad. I mean, what would
you do if I gave ten berries and told you three were poisoned?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-2316348368607644222016-09-10T09:37:00.003+01:002016-09-10T09:41:19.293+01:00Blind Man's Circus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have been a bit busy. There were things I needed to do. But I’m back now and
that’s the most important thing. </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How
is life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Interesting
question, I think. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When someone asks how
life is, I can’t help but wonder what the correct response is. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it supposed to be a personal question? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is one allowed to just set off and REALLY tell
the person how life is? Like, life is a blind man’s circus. It is a place, a place we <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">hate but can't leave</span>, even though
leaving is not that hard. A place where we all pretend to know what we are
doing but secretly we don’t, we are just waiting for someone to hold us by the
wrist and lead us. Life is a thing, like a piece of paper, you can make marks
on it and stuff, you can draw on it whatever you wish to draw on it, you don’t
have to draw anything on it even, you can fold it by the edges and make it into
an airplane or a boat or a gun or a flower: a rose and then you can paint it
red with watercolour and you can pretend it is a real, sweet scenting rose and
not just life folded at its edges. Nobody wants to hear any of these things, I don’t
think. So why do they ask how life is? Why do we ask questions if we are unprepared
to hear their answers?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have been thinking about heaven and how relative a term it is and how maybe we
have a wrong idea of the place. Yes, place. The first question is this: Is
heaven really a place or is it an idea. I think that my imagination of heaven
has changed a little in the last few years. Yes, I do think that heaven is a
place, but not a place the way that the library is a place or the market is a
place or the school is a place. It is a different kind of place, like, it
exists on a separate dimension, a dimension different from the dimensions that
every other place exists in. However, the composition of the place called
heaven is what I think we may have the wrong ideas of. When I was younger, I pictured
heaven as this golden republic where all the kinds of food you can ever imagine
can be found and all you have to do to eat anything is as simple: think about
it and it appears right in front of your mouth. What makes heaven heaven, is it
the presence of everything we want or is it the presence of God? If it is the
latter then we can as well say we are in heaven already, since, even at this
moment, as you read this, God is with you. A lot of us have the idea of heaven
as a golden republic, roads paved with gold just the way the bible describes it,
but what happens inside? Other than the paved ways and golden streets, what
happens inside the hugely ginormous mansions? More gold? Food? Books? God? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have been thinking about the marketplace. The marketplace is a swirling vortex
of entropy. It is chaos, it never stops: everybody is going somewhere; you
cannot stand still in the middle of the market because you may be hit by a
moving human body. There is something called Brownian motion in physics, it
describes a phenomenon where particles suspended in fluid are in a constant
state of random motion because they were unfortunate to bump into a fast moving
molecule of the fluid. It is like the disorientation that occurs in your head
after you accidentally hit it on a hard surface. This is what I am reminded of
every time I go to the market. It feels as though everybody in the market is
going somewhere even though nobody is actually going anywhere or knows where
they are going. Most often, we are all looking for things and so we do not know
where we are going because we do not know where we would find the things we are
looking for. I think the only people who know what they are doing in a marketplace
are the sellers, the ones who beckon on you to come and buy onions and tomatoes
and red meat. They are strategic people, and they deserve some respect. They understand
life. They understand the way in which the market works. They know that you
cannot stand still, yet you cannot be sure where you are headed. They
understand how life is a blind man’s circus, how he knows nothing except that
there is space and so he just goes: walks and walks, aimlessly and confused,
until someone holds him by the wrist and whisper’s in his ear: ‘this way.’ That
is how they attract you: by telling you that they have what you are looking
for, you can afford to stop moving now and go to them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
can afford to stop moving now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Till
next time,, Keep dreaming!!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-42710534587251226912016-08-20T01:24:00.000+01:002016-08-20T01:24:06.373+01:00Fighting Fires<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I have been suffering from Writer’s
Block for a little over a month now. I used to like to think of Writer’s Block
as a convenient condition where a writer is consistently not able to come up with
any type of content, mostly because he can afford not to. Although, no matter
how much I try to dismiss the idea, Writer’s Block is a real psychological
condition where the writer simply loses his ability to come up with new work
and its duration could vary diversely from a few days to years, and that is
usually the problem, isn’t it? the idea that this might be it, the fear that
your writing days may actually be well and truly over. As a writer, it is a
horrendous situation to be in.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I finished a novel called My
Sister’s Keeper on the 4<sup>th</sup> of August, it is written by Jodie
Picoult. One of the characters, Brian Fitzgerald, who is the main character’s father,
is a fireman and, well, a part time stargazer. His first statements in the book:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for every nineteen degrees hotter a fire
burns, it doubles in size... </i>Then: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It
is the biggest mistake rookies make: the assumption that fighting a fire means
rushing in with a stream of water. Sometimes, that makes it worse... </i>Then: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A fire can't burn forever.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Fires, as I intend to look at it
in this post, could be several things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The first fire is feelings. I have
been talking about feelings on the blog for the last three or so posts because I
think that our feelings are not things that we ought to hide from. Feelings,
just like fires, are subject to a lot of assumptions. Just the way Brian
Fitzgerald opines in My Sister’s Keeper that rookies have the wrong assumptions
about fighting fires where to them it only involves rushing towards the fire
with a stream of water, people also have very inaccurate assumptions about
feelings: that Person A feels this or that way about them, that Person B would
react in such and such a way when confronted with such and such a comment or
such and such a threat; that Person C would get angry when they say this to him
or Person D would love them when they do this for her. This is probably why
people act the way they act towards other people and it defines even more
important characteristics such as goodness, friendliness, kindness. These characteristics
are interesting because they are subject to what different people consider them
to mean i.e., they are also relative. However, a good person is probably not
going to intentionally attempt to act in a way that would make Person B react
unhappily or cause chaos in Person C’s countenance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The next fire is pain and it is
very different from feelings. John Green said in a vlogpost titled On Pain, ‘language
is always inadequate in the face of pain.’ I have known a bit of pain and so I know
that John Green cannot be any more correct about it. Words just do not cut it,
there just aren’t words invented (this is assuming that words are actually
invented) yet that even comes close to describing pain. This indescribable thing
could be either emotional pain, the kind you feel when you lose a loved one to
death or to over-inflated ego, or corporal pain, the kind that makes you
writhe. However, just the way Brian Fitzgerald says it, a fire can’t burn
forever, Pain can’t hurt forever. There comes a period, either due to passage of
time or an effective medication, when pain just ceases, it just stops. A second
thing about pain is its irreverence. Pain, no matter how used to it you get, is
never, ever your friend. And this reminds me of a beautiful novel I read once called
Life of Pi written by Yann Martel, where a young man named Piscine Molitor (Pi)
Patel, after a shipwreck, sails on a life boat for 227 days in the Pacific with
nothing for company but an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. For 227
days, Pi and the Tiger sail together, they get used to each other more than
anything else so that by the time they finally reach the coast of Mexico,
Richard Parker, so extremely unceremoniously deserts Pi, the only living
creature with whom he has spent the last 227 days. He wandered off into the
forest. Richard Parker was never Pi’s friend, He was a Tiger, Pi was a man.
This is how Pi describes it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wept like
a child. It was not because I was overcome at having survived my ordeal, though
I was. Nor was it the presence of my brothers and sisters </i>(fellow humans)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, though that too was very moving. I was weeping
because Richard Parker had left me so unceremoniously.</i> It is the same with
pain. Pain is not your friend.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And the final fire, perhaps
inevitably, is fear. Fear, just like feelings is very relative. Therefore, the
fact that Person A has a fear for such and such does not mean that Person B
would have that fear even if Person A and B are twins. This means that it is
unlikely that fighting fear can be a group thing. Even if A and B have the same
fears, the steps that A would take may not be the same as those that B would
take. The absolute thing about fear is that it is a side effect of thought. You
can only feel fear for something that you think about, and in this way, fear
can be seen as a sort of clairvoyance, with your fear, even though it is mostly
seen as negative, you are predicting what the future can be. Say Person A is
terrified of snakes, and she finds a snake in her wardrobe, she becomes afraid
because she is predicting that the snake she is so terrified of may harm her,
this allows her to take some steps to avoid being harmed, it could be running
away, getting people to help her get rid of it, etc. Brian Fitzgerald said for
every nineteen degrees a fire burns, it doubles in size. The size of our fear becomes
based on how long we let it burn. If Person A does not act quickly about the
snake she has found in her wardrobe, her fear grows and grows until a point
where her prediction becomes true. Fear is a rather complicated subject. Is fear
a fire that we should extinguish, like the flames from a burning house? Or is
fear a fire that invigorates and inspires and motivates us, like the flames of love?
I will end with a quote I found by W. Clement Stone, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.</i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-62887827949573366732016-07-09T12:46:00.007+01:002016-07-09T12:46:57.851+01:00On Feelings<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There
is now a generalized consciousness among most people, I think, that life is
short and so it is better to live it up as high as you can, to regret nothing
as much as you can help it and, most importantly, as far as this blog post
goes, to rid yourself of the things or people around you that do not bring you
happiness in consistency and quality.</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I
hate to lose friends. The thought
of losing friends scares me. It is hard to imagine how one could have had so much memory
with someone and then, for reasons that are flimsy on most occasions but
sometimes cogent, you and that someone just stop correspondence. It often does
not matter, or matters very little how profound or beautiful the time you have
spent together is, ego just takes over and the relationship ends abruptly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But
the thing I have not failed to notice is that it is absolutely necessary
sometimes, for no other reason but for your continued peace of mind. I agree
that I could be egocentric on occasions: not in terms of loving myself too much,
but in my opinion of myself, quite simply, I think too highly of myself
sometimes. It is a problem I know I have, therefore it is something I am
actively trying to find a solution to. I think that a lot of us have this
problem as well. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want to feel that we
do not need to be a certain way or do a certain thing because it seems too low.
But perceiving a certain thing as ‘too low’ is strongly dependent on the person
perceiving. Low is different for different people. What is low to you may not
be low to me, vice versa. The point is I understand how our ego can take the
place of common sense. How we could feel that there is no reason to be the
person who fights for the survival of a relationship. It is easy to feel that
way. It is also easy to feel that you have gained nothing but heartbreak and chaos
from continuous friendship with certain people, a good example is friendship
with someone you have feelings for. You could try but if the feeling is truly there,
it is nothing but punishment to yourself, the way I see it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It
is not as easy, however, to cut off from someone, but sometimes it is the most rational thing
to do. It becomes more important if your peace of mind and heart is at stake. Life
is too short to hang on to shards of broken glass and hope that they would be
kind enough not to tear your hands. Feelings are not as openly discussed as I think
they ought to be. Feelings are essential and they are not just composed of love
but of friendship, almost as equally. In the same way, heartbreak is dependent
on so many factors and not just on the love of your life breaking up with you. There
are so many components to heartbreak that breaking up with someone seems one of
the most flimsy of all. Unrequited love, just like unrequited friendship, is such
a sad and painful thing. And as such, I can only conclude that it is a sin
against oneself to remain in harm’s way. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I wanted to make this post as simple
as possible but it is hard to not include a philosophical angle to it. Angles
such as Eric Berne’s, a psychiatrist, who states <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Some say that one-sided love is better than none, but like half a loaf
of bread, it is likely to grow hard and moldy sooner.”</i> It is a mirror of
the classic example with which we like to describe anger, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a hot coal, </i>the longer you hold on to it, the more it burns deeper
and deeper into your palm.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13408029138236627531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7787234457494982873.post-23886424068808846452016-07-07T09:27:00.001+01:002016-07-07T09:27:34.287+01:00Little Drops of Miracle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5aA7ImFnE_QBa4gJcEzmFHe0GjqZeB41kUkiNN88Lon3r0xU4XPt8cibC9hOaH2kADFXybQi7ljS6AQdvYbufyykLIbDCP6_EWdTa84Y1WnuBu1SaVSteB6IDQNPgegUTOxaktl2L1AU/s1600/q3_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5aA7ImFnE_QBa4gJcEzmFHe0GjqZeB41kUkiNN88Lon3r0xU4XPt8cibC9hOaH2kADFXybQi7ljS6AQdvYbufyykLIbDCP6_EWdTa84Y1WnuBu1SaVSteB6IDQNPgegUTOxaktl2L1AU/s320/q3_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span id="goog_1710066062"></span><span id="goog_1710066063"></span>It
is interesting how we are able to rationalize our emotions and to determine the
responses that make the most sense at any given time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
are lucky to be here even at this moment when it seems as though we can hardly
go a full day without hearing of a bombing in Baghdad that killed 250 people or
a mass shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people or Donald Trump. There is a
difference, I think, between an individual being upset about the bad things
happening around or being pained because it is hard to understand how a person
would gladly lose his own life and kill two hundred and fifty other people in
the process, there is a difference between that and being depressed because
‘the world is an unhappy place.’ Things are really not as bad as they used to
be, say, fifty years ago. For example, at least it is now illegal to
discriminate against someone because his skin colour is black, women are no
longer considered the way they were in the past, a little girl can get all the
education she wants today and she can become everything she wants to become;
the barriers in front of her are not as huge as they used to be. Technology and
the internet have made things too easy. Kids do not just die
uselessly as they used to because these days the childhood killer diseases
(Tuberculosis, Polio, Measles, Diphtheria, Pertussis) have vaccines which
when taken by the child, completely immunizes him or her of that disease. We
have found cures for dreadful illnesses and we will find more. World Crude
Death Rate has consistently declined since 1950 at 19.1 to 2015 at 8.1.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
world is not an unhappy place. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">We
underrate happiness</b>. We underrate happiness because we have this idea that there
is nothing else to be seen therefore the littler things which ought to
fascinate us become insignificant. Beauty is an important ingredient for
happiness, as such, it should be referenced at every given opportunity. And
beauty is not just expressed in humans; in fact, relatively, it is as good as negligible
in humans. Albus Dumbledore said: “Happiness can be found even in the darkest
of times, if one only remembers to turn on the lights.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
lights are perpetually turned off. We turn them off because we imagine that they
serve only to distract us, we turn them off because the things that make up
most of the news are the many wrongdoings and wickedness. Nobody reports random
acts of kindness. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
moon comes out every morning and goes to sleep every night. We are capable of
meeting people each day, different kinds of people, fascinating and crooked in
ways only them can be. In our world, you are you and only you just the way the
next person can be nobody else but himself or herself. We are capable of making
music: sweet sounds that nourish our existence, putting words together and
finding sounds to go with them. We are capable of falling in love; of finding
someone and deciding that that someone would mean everything to us for the rest
of our lives. We are capable of laughing: finding something funny and just
laughing; we are capable of making jokes and making fun of each other’s
quirkiness and idiosyncrasies. We are capable of poetry and fiction and art and
science; of discovering fascinating new things in the world that we are living
in; of making up fantastic stories that make us cry and then laugh and feel
content and feel anguish and anxiousness and every single feeling possible
including those that have not been named. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">We
are capable of feeling: isn’t the most important thing? Being able to
rationalize something in our head and determine what the appropriate emotional
reaction or response to that thing should be. Because we have been blessed with
this gift of feeling, we are capable of having the right responses to situations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">These
things are little drops of miracle that we underrate so much to a point where
their beauties and importance have become doubtful to us. Yet these drops of
miracle are the ingredients that ought to make our lives and existence here on
earth as pleasurable as possibly. </span></div>
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