Of the many things that one may choose to do with his time, it could be said that helping another person is the most noble; and indeed, the time which would be taken to do this endeavour could be said to be well spent.

It should seem then, that the most noble acts are the most rewarding ones, although from experience, one may see that this is not often so. To make sure of this, therefore, one should first establish his intentions before setting out to help; for, with the sort of mistrust of motive which people possess for other people in these times; and, with these climes that are rife with feelings of entitlement, even gratitude for favours rendered is not a guarantee.

With this in mind, it should not be seen as unfair to reason that people should do good only when it is convenient for them. But somehow, inside us, we know that this should not be true.

At a point, if you are any kind of decent in your manner of thinking, the selfish individualism which is the world today should sicken you; where everyone is so connected, yet so far away. Friendships are made solely for gain, and people are objectified; reduced to instruments for providing momentary pleasure, like pressing “play” on a music deck, or a grabbing a bag of chips when you are peckish. One may safely say that the “connection”of today’s world is merely a means to keep a tab on the progress of your “friends”, and see how well you are doing in comparison, and then, if perceived lacking, up the ante.

So how best do we help people, and yet, doing so still cost us nothing? Talk is cheap; dirt cheap. So it should be with our words, then. We can say words that go very far, and we can write words that uplift; that move people to new patterns of thought. We do not have to write all the time about sadness or gloom, or of poverty or disaster. These are constant realities in our world. We are constantly surrounded by pain and hardship. We write about it, and then we feel content that we have “created awareness”, but that is usually where we stop, and so in actual fact, end up doing nothing. In writing about the things around us, we merely act as observers. In writing about the things within us, however, we become thinkers. It is thinkers that move the world forward; in good ways, or bad.

We do not have to say or write what is popular in order to remain relevant; we should write what is important to remain so. What is important to you? You have the gift of free speech, so write it. Sadly, others have this gift as well, so write some more about what you believe, and run the race of influencing the people’s minds to see who gets to the finish line first.

It is said, “you cannot change the world”, but then, one does not have to. A man can change the way he thinks. He can influence the way in which others do so, as well. Since it is people that the world is made up of, the world is just a collection of minds; some seeking to influence, others fighting against being influenced, and most others without a clue. Now, this is the beauty of literature that science cannot even hope to comprehend, let alone achieve; how a motley composition of verbs, nominals and conjunctions can, say, bring a grown person to tears, or elevate an entire generation to a different level of thought.

But enough with the philosophy, the world is what it is. We want to read and be entertained; heck, we don’t even want to read. We just want to be entertained, and it doesn’t make us bad. Some days we just want to vent. Some days we just want to groove. Some days, after the reggae, we just want to play the blues.

So, let all our bitches have real hair, and chill with their tops down screaming like; “aeiyoo!” Since we have the money, we are going to spend it like its going out of fashion. Enough with the falsehood of humility, and let us break the mould we have so carefully cast ourselves in; revel, live, rave, and ignore all the good things we hear as they are said; running through our head, running though our head, and tell ourselves that this is not enough. We are on fire, and we are all mixed up, but we say it doesn’t make us out of our minds. We are balling like we are high on hoops. We party till we drop, and then tomorrow we do it all over again. Reality hits, and sometimes we believe, at the times when we should know. All the while, our story has been written on the walls.

I’ve been a bloody lyric thief for the last ten lines or so. Stealing can be a fine art! It’s only when you’re caught that it becomes a crime.

After some time, when we find that we have deceived ourselves enough that we do not care about people or things in general, because we are so “independent” or perhaps just “in control of our emotions” and are “just bosses like that”; after we have championed the mantra of “it's my life, so nobody can tell me what to do”, we begin to realise that we strive for perfection in the silliest of things.

Yes, regardless of how long we may run away from it, we shall all have a time when we are finally forced to look beyond the daily distractions of our lives, our flurry of hobbies, our activism; political or otherwise, our campaigns and awareness creation, our follows, our tweets, our hashtags and our likes, our jobs – or our lack of jobs, as the case may be – and there we find, just… Ourselves.

Nothing else but ourselves. Our minds; plain, single and simple; subtracted from what we may want to imagine that others would have us become, in order to be considered accomplished people.

I have often been told that what I write might not be “trending”, but that I write it well. Well, whatever is worth doing is worth doing well; even the seemingly mundane things that we decide to pass our time with. Goodness is foolishness. Kindness is weakness. Principle is being old-fashioned. So, you do not need to reflect on your inner self, because that is not hip, and morality is not a trending topic. But we can deceive ourselves that we are happy, and we can pursue an escape through luxury cars, expensive wines, and frequent sex with random strangers. It doesn’t matter at the end, because we will all be gone. So we chase after shadows and illusions of things. We are hedonistic and we have no apologies for it.

A person should not misrepresent what values he truly believes in, just because of a wish to fit in with the crowd or be accepted; or a wish to please people who have no right to such power as you have given them to wield over your life, in influencing your decisions.

So, basically: harm no one, and then, live your life! That about sums up what I have to say. Men are not tools. Women are not utilities. Children are not a means to an end.

So, away with words, and let us have a new gospel. The gospel of how we live our lives. In writing, we often speak so much about “show, don’t tell”. As a person who writes is a writer (whether good or bad), why should that not extend to the way of life of the writer himself?

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Copyright by @anakadrian.
This property is not for sale. Beware my son, Anak Jnr.