Sayings of the Wise. 4

‘Why won’t we just stop and think about our actions?’ I brooded.

‘What actions?’ Russell asked.

I was startled. I didn’t even realize that I was talking out loud. I ignored him, since he had even shifted his attention to something else anyway.

Memories of years before came to me. The lessons I had learnt at the orphanage. I grew up under the care of Ma Ruth; the elderly lady who ran the orphanage. I could almost hear her voice as if she was present here with me. She always taught us to love everyone equally and to treat everyone the way we wanted to be treated. Money was scarce at the orphanage as there were so many of us but she always told us that the value of an item did not lie in its cost.

‘Do you still read the crime section? You should know no one reads that anymore, there’s so much pain in the air already, that you don’t want to add to it by reading about evil. I just read the sport section and solve the puzzles.’ Russell said.

I was deep in thought, with my head buried in the newspaper I had in front of me, that I didn’t realize Russell was behind me.

‘There is no love anymore among us.’ I finally responded.

‘This isn’t a question of love.’ He replied. ‘Why do you even worry so much? The day is going to end and another will start, and everything will go back to how it has always been.’

I looked at him in shock.

‘Why are you staring at me?’ He asked.

‘Well, that is the exact kind of attitude that has landed us here in the first place. We don’t live by any standards. Gone are the days when we valued justice and loved people more than things. Now, we only think about ourselves; so we cheat, lie, steal and hurt others.’

‘You made a good point. However, the fact that you basically lead your life by a certain principle doesn’t mean others should do that too, it’s just the way things work in our world today.’

It wasn’t the first time I had heard similar words, but it was the first time I was going to challenge it. Maybe, people had forgotten, and it was simply time to remind them of the values they had discarded.

‘Have you considered that the world was a better place when we lived by principles of love and fairness? Has it occurred to you that because we took out the boundaries, we’ve steadily become more lawless? Do you know that a day will come when injustice is served to you because one man took away the landmark? Are we going to go back to doing what is right, even if it has become unpopular?’

As the words sank in, I saw the look in his eyes change from apathy to interest. I knew he was thinking about it, and for the first time, I could smile honestly. Still, I wondered how long it would take to mop up all the evil we had spilled on earth, just by taking out the guidelines.

“Don’t move an old stone that marks a border, because those stones were set up by your ancestors.”

Proverbs 22:28 NCV

Praise Adebayo.