Sunday, 9 February 2025

WHO BROKE YOUR COCONUT?



I was thinking this morning..... I was invited to the commissioning of a multibillion naira facility during this past week. After the commissioning, the MD invited me to his office to tell me his story. He recounted how he rose from a humble beginning sleeping on the bare floor and mats in a remote village in Delta State to becoming a very successful businessman today. 'I have always made it my guiding principle not to see the hundreds of people that work for me from the lens of MD vs Worker, because I was in a worse state than them many years ago.'


He told me how information got to him about a tenant in one of his blocks of flats in Port-Harcourt. 'I was told how the children of this tenant were sent home from school because they were unable to pay the fees, and I was really touched. If they couldn't pay school fees, how can they pay the rent? I imagined. It reminded me of how I was sleeping on mats and bare floor for many years. I immediately called my lawyer and instructed him that all 12 tenants in the block of flats should no longer pay rent. That was 6 years ago.'

As I listened to him, I imagined how wonderful the world would be if everyone who had a humble beginning like him would give a helping hand to people in difficult situations. As I mused, I recalled the words of my young wife, 'When the gods break your coconut, stay humble.'

It's very easy to feel proud and walk like someone wearing a shoulder pad because you 'don hammer.' There are some very successful people from very poor backgrounds. Today, they treat their former classmates and other not so fortunate people like rag. They avoid them saying 'this one is not in my class.' Just a personal reminder from my wife, 'When the gods break your coconut, stay humble.'

It's been a Hindu tradition for ages to break coconut during auspicious occasions like buying new cars or even starting a new business. To them, breaking coconut is synonymous with prosperity. In that context, not everyone is lucky to break coconut. They've done all within their powers and even prayed for divine support, but the coconut refuse to break. You may or may not have exerted energy, yet your coconut broke, and you are enjoying the succulent white fruit. As you enjoy, remember that 'When the gods break your coconut, stay humble.' Remember Proverbs 18:11-12.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey

Sunday, 2 February 2025

Your Value, My Nothing

 


I was thinking this morning.... Last week, I was decluttering my wardrobe when I saw this lace kaftan or what we used to call buba and shokoto. I had made that outfit  for the dedication of my first child and had been reluctant over the years to give it away because it always reminds me of the joy of that special day. The value of that piece of clothing to me is not in the cost but the memories associated with it. To someone else, it is a piece of relic.

Some years ago, when my son was in his early teens and about my height, I decided to give him a shirt I really loved. I thought it would look good on him. My boy wore it once and never again touched it. After many months, I noticed the shirt was buried in his wardrobe. As I took it out, I wondered how a piece of clothing I value so much meant nothing to him. It was then I appreciated the relativity of value.

To my son, the shirt was old school and not his type of clothing. T-shirt was his thing at the time. However, to me, apart from the shirt being expensive, I looked and felt good in it. While the shirt was valuable to me, it meant nothing to my son. My value, his nothing.

Something that means the world to one person can mean absolutely nothing to another person. You see a man treat his wife condescendingly. He insults her, beats her up, and handles her like rag. Yet another man adores that same woman, worships the floor she walks on and praying for a chance to be with her and love her. What is nothing to the husband, is of value to another man.

Value is relative. Some things may not have monetary value, yet they are priceless. Some things become priceless because of what they represent to some persons. What's valuable to me is not up to you to decide. Just like what's valuable to you has nothing to do with me. The Eiffel Tower in Paris looks like a pile of metals to me, but because it is valuable to the French, it has become valuable to the world.

Believe in what you value, and others will come to respect it as well. Respect what I value just like I will respect yours. It's okay if we disagree on what material things we value, but one thing we should never disagree on is valuing a soul. Every life is more valuable than gold. Job 28:16.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey