When people speak ill of their past, it’s not necessarily a reflection of its entirety. They err by omitting their childhood days where all things were perfect for kids with silver spoons just like with those whose families find it difficult in life. We all were living in Peace no matter what.
When we were young, we made friends without setting yardsticks and we had play with no bounds. 24 hours were never enough for us to play and we were color-blind in choosing partners. Sometimes, we beg our pairs to play and have fun with us. Those we refuse to share our toys with in the morning will later become those who make our afternoon fascinating.
We forget and forgive easily just because we chose to live happily and playfully, than to be alone in our yards.
Children Play In Peace
Fast forward to now, our problem is Geography and Social studies.. We started growing, thinking texts has all solutions to our problems.
To start with: Geography makes us see lines on papers and call them ‘boundaries’, which in turn makes us think we are different.
In Social Studies, we learnt of different races, forgetting a white man can use the kidney of a black man.
How can these ideologies limit us.. how can professors and scholars pose as demigods?
Why should we think another race is better than ours?
We have done so much harm to ourselves with the features we attach to races..
Majority of us say Language is the most important.. If a Briton is raised by an Indian woman, what language by nature would such toddler attempt first? Your guess is as good as mine. So what happens to “mother tongue”?
Humans are selfish.. This is one of the biggest crimes in Life: we think we are perfect and others aren’t.
We have this opinion that defines our taste i.e we always attach inferiority to those whose features are different from ours. Nature is will and must always leave us two decisions to make during important moments of our lives. One tells you to stop alcohol and the others says you’re cool as a drunk.
Do we forgive ourselves after such propositions from within? Yes, we do and unfortunately we don’t pierce into our minds or body to eradicate the part of us that brews these negative thoughts. We make mistakes and we quickly move on saying mistakes are prerequisites of success and qualities of a growing man but we castigate and punish those who make mistakes in trying to please us.
Humans differ by religions. Religion is further divided into doctrines, doctrines are upheld by men, men are different in thoughts. It still doesn’t end there, our thoughts are always two, one is always trying to please us while the other isn’t.
People of different religions don’t tolerate themselves but our thoughts tolerate themselves. The mechanism behind the creation of our opposite thoughts have been in existence ever since we’ve been born.
Husbands don’t tolerate their wives, nations don’t tolerate themselves, tribes are at war while families aren’t left out.
Yet we say we are grown ups.. Are we grown ups because we crawl no more? Are we mature because we are free? Maybe we are adults just because we are now tall and rich..
Which would you like to be: An adult who’s with a lot of problems simply because he can’t tolerate a fellow man or an innocent kid with no burden on his or her mind?
CONCLUSION:
We can’t stop growth because it’s an essential characteristics of human beings, but we can choose what we leave behind in the past and what we bring to the present and what to take to the future, that which we don’t see from here. Our past isn’t full of garbage like some opined. We can learn (and understand) from our childhood days where we had no enemies but friends.
Ademuyiwa Adebola Taofeek
@iam_ademuyiwa