#INSECURE

“The important thing isn’t what other people think you are, it’s who you are”…Shannon L. Alder

Who art thou?

This is probably the question that we ask of other people the most without actually asking same of ourselves. Globally, and from time past, prevailing circumstances have constantly caused identity crisis amongst us to an extent whereby we virtually forget who we really are, tempting us to want to be like other people other than ourselves.

Have you ever found yourself distraught by an awkward situation where you were betrayed or disappointed by acquaintances that you could swear were loyal to you? Of course we all have, in fact it becomes such a very difficult situation that burdens our minds, making it hard for us to trust people, but if you want to be smart, perhaps you could do a self-check to find out if you are the one who has problems, naturally though, we aren’t all perfect. 

If we had discerning minds like psychologists and psychiatrists, we would discover that we all are looking for ourselves in other people and the conditions that constantly surround us, for instance majority of the world populace are all addicted to distractions such as gadgets, movies, politics and sports that cause us to be unconsciously self-centered and obsessed with the lives of others, losing ourselves in their world of lucid fantasy, knowing and idolizing them better than we do ourselves.

“Often romantic relationships fail because you are trying to get someone to fall in love with the ‘YOU’ that you never discovered”…Shannon L. Alder

Bored?

What would you do if the entire world suddenly has one supreme leader and a law was passed that bans internet, gadgets, movies, music, flights, cars, cruises, electricity and even cuisines, would you survive? Even if you did survive, you’d probably go insane or become a zombie (walking corpse).

Well, not everyone would actually get bored or go crazy because people such as monks and the original spiritual sages are used to avoiding world pleasures and luxuries in order to discover the deep within them and are content, like Pico Iyer points out in his Ted original classic best seller ‘The Art of Stillness’ with machines coming to seem part of our nervous sytems, while increasing their speed every season, we’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends, our nights off…our bosses, junk mailers, our parents can find us wherever we are, at any time of day or night. More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.

The rest of us however are accustomed to being dependent on the new world that has been made relatively easier at the expense of our health and life spans, our lives and future indirectly used as a substitute for the bottom line of industries where low cadre workers are maltreated in a lifelong vicious cycle.

Canned foods are preserved with laced chemicals that slowly deteriorates our health, gadgets such as phones, computers and TVs allows radio waves to interact with our delicate human systems reducing the effectiveness of our internal organs. Guns are manufactured to directly and immorally end lives, while accidents, capsizes and crashes threaten car, boat and air travels respectively.    

“Insecure people only eclipse your sun because they are jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights”…Shonnon L. Alder

Can’t hold me down

There is a Nigerian adage which says ‘a child that doesn’t allow his mother sleep will also not get rest’, by implication, anyone that employs himself with the job of not letting someone rest or succeed, he himself will definitely be on his toes.

Imagine a situation where you have no water in the house and unfortunately there is absolutely no alternative. Then all of a sudden, a massive shower of rain graces you, at that point doesn’t it feel magical? Insecure, most people in this situation would scramble to get buckets to store up the rain water.

I think this scenario kind of explains the situation with corruption especially in Nigeria. Most Nigerians like a flower from a concrete sprung up from humble backgrounds, usually not out of deprivation, but lack of contentment due to apparent exposure to the stereotypically idolized western world and her cultures that make us realize we can be more ambitious and do more, thus realizing that we are probably under-achievers with potential.

Nigerian politicians after obtaining mandates to occupy public offices have a reputation of embarking on spending, amassing and laundering spree for a number of reasons. Firstly, they have never been given an opportunity to manage such mega budgets allocated to their offices, secondly, they have invested quite a lot of their personal resources and those donated to them by their expectant godfathers, and thirdly, they owe  their kinsmen the cultural obligation of taking care of financial obligations of family, relatives and friends who constantly remind them that this may be their last time to benefit from the national cake, urging them to make the most of it, just like the rain which falls during water scarcity, fill all the empty buckets available.

“I am convinced that the jealous, the angry, the bitter and the egotistical are the first to race to the top of mountains. A confident person enjoys the journey, the people they meet along the way and sees life not as a competition. They reach the summit last because they know God isn’t at the top waiting for them. He is down below helping his followers to understand that view is glorious where ever you stand”…Shannon L. Alder

 

Emotional Intelligence

Take a moment to picture this scenario. Your friend visits you in your home, while hosting him as a guest, a violent knock is heard at your door, and then in some way you realized the uninvited visitor at the door is a villain seeking to end your friend’s life. Would you let him in right away and have him hurt your friend, or would you hide your friend for his safety and tell the villain that your friend isn’t around?

Remember, no matter what you do at this point, if you are extremely religious, which usually robs us of our blurred faith or obscure confidence, in some extreme context; you would be committing a sin. For me, I would hide my friend to safety and say that he isn’t around, although that would be a lie, but it is obviously better than surrendering him to be slaughtered.

My point? We are in the wisdom age, having transcended glorious antecedences ranging from the stone, agrarian, industrial and jet ages. Understanding of relativity has indeed stepped out of its shadow, letting light shine upon darkness, giving us the opportunity and option to embrace the knowledge we require to move us to the next level and to further understand the mysterious and unique principles that govern earth.

What is truth and what is courage?

Just as they say geek is the new cute, I’d say empathy is the new smart.

Emotional intelligence has been discovered to be perhaps the most powerful consideration we can offer, not only to our fellow humans, but also to the earth we live in, others such as even animals, and the ways we preserve the planet and not add to the currently lingering global warming.

“A man’s spirit is free, but his pride binds him with chains of suffocation in a prison of his own insecurities”…Jeremy Aldana

Content

 

Content is an impressive homograph as stated in a previous critical lyric post (Content: What’s on your inside?). So we are invariably saying two different things here that are happening simultaneously and perhaps also meet at a crucial point.

What is on our inside, and are we satisfied? Answers to these questions have a tendency to help determine our future.

If we are distracted by excessive involvement in work especially with an ulterior motive to wrongly enrich ourselves at the expense of hapless people, we lose concentration and are also devoid of the will and ability to show and share empathy for the needy. In this case we have greed inherent in us (which becomes our content), and we then become dissatisfied

(not content), and then it ironically gets better from there, leaving us to become nothing but insensitive monsters.

Nigeria for instance which boasts of a massive population of over 170 million people has been classed as a developing nation for as long as I can remember, with the potential of her growing economy glowing to the discerning world like a diamond in the dirt that is yet to be honed.

Nigeria has been largely plagued with the most unbelievable system of misplaced priorities, not out of ignorance, but out of greed, self-centredness and unchecked corruption. An average Nigerian citizen is afraid, not out of obvious panic for an impending disaster, but fear of the unknown, trepidation for the future due to the constant trampling of the government upon the citizens, which causes her residents to feel inferior, saddled with low self esteem and not having a sense of belonging that they yearn for and truly require

With the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress (APC) winning the hearts of Nigerians and presently occupying the seat of power perhaps through their ‘change’ slogan, there is extremely high expectation from Nigerians for the new government to diminish the persistent insecurities such as jobs, infrastructure, economy and safety of lives and property.

However, with the present crisis rocking the leadership stratum in the country as previously predicted by political analysts, and which is perceived a result of greed for juicy positions as opposed to the ‘change’ selling point used to gain people’s attention and trust, and with the proposal to dish out huge sums of monies as allowances to the members of the house of parliament, it is still obscure to Nigerians if the insecurity which burdens the land will ever go away.

Thank you.

Akin Abimbola (akinzogee@gmail.com)

Sources:

Google

Goodreads

Brainyquote

Time Magazine

The Art of Stillness

TED books

About Education