Copyright  © 2008 Stockmann

All Rights Reserved

Date Published: 17/01/2008 10:43:00 GMT

Author: Balla M. Nasrullaah

Islamic University College-Ghana

E-mail: bmnas99@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

Everyday in life we come across people: People we know and people we don’t know. Some we have met before, and others we have never met. Some we live with and others we don’t live with. Some we are close to, yet others we are never close to. Those that are close to us are those we call our friends. We share food, water, and bed at times. Among those we call friends, though all close to us, some are closer, and others are the closest. The closest, habitually, we call our loved ones: They are our family, our caretakers, and our partners. With these our loved ones, we share our thoughts, our dreams, our secrets- our values.

 

Again in life are people we stay with for live. Those are our family, our caretakers, and partners as mentioned already. We in life sometimes come to stay with people that will stay with us for a short time and find our ways again. Among are those we have never imagined to meet. Optimistically or pessimistically, these people may influence our lives during this short stay, which will possibly have impacts on our future. During this short stay, we copy them, do things to please them: we do things aligned to their values but forgetting ours, only for us to separate again when that time comes.

 

An instant is when we meet in schools and other institutions, as room mates, as dorm mates, as class mates, and as course mates: we do influence one another’s lives. We do things we would or could not have done if we had been alone, and we forget that those that we copy would or could leave us in no time. When they might have left, we would be bearing the consequence of our actions: Actions that we executed with them and that we completed alone, good had it been or bad. And for those that we stay with, thus the family, caretakers, and partners, death may separate us at any time though we expect to live longer with them. We would again be paying for any borrowed behaviour from them, good it had been or bad.

 

From the so-called loved ones, we expect a reciprocal of feelings, of hopes, and of dreams. We expect that our loved ones do to us what we would do to them. We expect that they show us friendliness, love, and care. We expect them to share things of them that we have shared of us. It is the hope of reciprocality that makes us feel betrayed, heart-broken, and hurt when the “loved ones” display characters contrary to our expectation. It is but the faith we have in them that ruptures our hearts when the loved ones show their true colours- real character- which happen to be on the other hand of the balance.

 

The family, the caretakers, and the partners douse the torch of our thoughts, hopes, and our dreams when comes the time of betrayal. The loved ones become indiscreet towards our secrets. They tell people of us that which is not of us (lies). They rename us and put us in robes that will twist the cheeks of the angriest man- thus make the angriest man laugh. We become clowns before them and their friends. If among the “not lucky” ones, we become targets of their deadliest traps. This is common in girls-girls, and boys-boys.

 

Also in commuting, daily, we see people: People we always see, People we don’t see, and people we, perhaps, will never see or meet again till That Day. Some we meet in life exhibit characters desirous to us and all. They are those we may mime to assemble our own engines, to construct our own structures, and to farm our own lands: I mean to create a dazzling future for ourselves. Remember if you can! There has been someone you have met in the past: a person you would wish to meet again, and who you might as well never meet again. You have met someone you have had: that person you would wish to have again, and who you will perhaps never have again. Have you not also met someone you have loved: whom you would have wished to love yet again; and whom you possibly will never be able to love again? What about that one you have hurt: the same person you would wish to hurt again, and whom you could never get the chance of hurting again. Remember! Is this not correct? So are the ways of life.

 

Events happen naturally in life to favour us: Events that we may adjudge among the unpleasant may in actuality be cracked paths to the inside of life. Did I say inside? Yes, but I mean insights of life. The events add to our experiences, hence teaching us the ways of life. Most people call such events ‘Blessing in disguise’ but I choose to call it ‘fortunes of nature’.

 

A saying says Life has no rehearsals but only performances. For that reason, we should be ourselves: we should live lives right to us and not to others. Let us live in our own dreams and not the dreams of others. In others’ dream, we would only be objects the dreamers use to pursue their own interests. Let us beware that advice from friends is like the weather, some of it is good and some of it bad.

Who then do we call our friends? Who do we trust?

Friends…

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