NOT JUST A NOUN
The word ‘place’ is not
just another kind of noun. It is a word that reflects our beings and assesses
our disposition in relation to our habitat. A place is as good as the people in
it and vice versa.
In life, we all have a
choice but though, most times, the choices are made for us. We did not choose
where we were born, we did not choose how we were born, we did not choose the
kind of our family, and neither did we choose the financial predicament of our
parents. But however, we can choose the way we live, how we live, where we live
and the people we want around us. As Richard Bach puts it, “There are no
mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are
necessary in order to learn; whatever steps we take, they are necessary to
reach the places we are chosen to go”
Where we live or find
ourselves (place) matters, be it our home, religion gatherings and the totality
of our environment. A bunch of banana chips can be sold for as low as N100 (one
hundred naira) in a place and the same bunch of banana chips can also be sold
for as high as N1000 (one thousand naira) in another place. The chips are the
same, but the places are not the same!
We will be looking at
various places that affect us in our entire disposition and in our day to day
activities. The following are the different kind of places that we have and you
can afterward, choose the place you would like to be:
PLACE OF WORK VS PLACE OF WEALTH
PLACE OF WORK VS PLACE OF WEALTH
Majority of us have succumbed
to the place of work. We leave our homes with the awful thought of leaving for
the place of work. How pathetic and sorry we are! That is why some of us work.
As a matter of fact, we work very hard and gather little. If working is the
best, then unskilled labourers should live a better life than any other person
because they work harder. They toil. Do you ever wonder why some works for
eight to twelve hours a day but still earn lesser than some who works three
hour or less per day? Therefore, working does not guarantee good living but
only serves as a survival trend. The different between the rich and the poor is
time. What they do with their time. We all have twenty-four hours a day. But,
while an average man would leave his home for a place of work, a rich man would
leave his home for a place of wealth. The average man works harder because his
life depends on that. Ironically, a rich man becomes wealthier from the hard labor of the average man.
You need to decide which
one you want or would like to leave your home for. I refuse to leave for a
place of work; rather, I have chosen to leave my home for a place of wealth.
Like Jacob, he was tired of the place of work. He asked his master when he too
would start to take full responsibility of his family’s affairs and therefore
seeks for a place of wealth where he can gather wealth and stop working.
Therefore, one of the best ways of leaving a place of work for a place of
wealth is to have your own business.
A PLACE OF EXCUSE VS A PLACE OF EXECUTION
A man once went to his
doctor to complain about a broken leg. He said,”I told the doctor to complain I
broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.” That’s
funny but simply the truth. Do we really need to complain about a situation we
can have control over? It is certainly not necessary. For the man to have
thought of going to his doctor, he must have been encouraged to do so by the
people around him. He was expecting a different response from the doctor, but
unfortunately, the doctor did not belong to him own place.
I was fortunate to be in
church one Sunday service. The preacher asked the congregation why must of us
were yet to accomplish our goals for the years. People gave a lot of excuses to
why they were yet to achieve their goals. But because my church is not a place
of excuse, the preacher informed us that we had no excuse. And that is it.
What really are our
excuses? A broken leg; a physical disability, a mental constraint, a financial
difficulty/ a spiritual block out, an economic instability or a family disappointment?
Do we really have any excuse? Of course, the earth breaks us and leaves us
broken. But, it would be more perilous if we chose to remain broken and see
that as an excuse for not doing well.
There are places that
accommodate excuses. These are gatherings of the lazy ones that would gather
all day to discuss about negativity and the reasons why they cannot make it.
They are so comprehensive in their report but lack the understanding. The truth
is that most of the excuses we give are external but the real canker worm eating
us up is inside of us. To conquer the giants outside of us, we need to stop
thinking like Haruki Murakami that says “The problem was, I thinking, that the places
I fit in were always falling behind the rimes”. He wasn't even sure, he was only thinking!
Most things we call
problems or fear are not even there. They are imaginative. They don’t even exist. Most successful persons
never think they could ever achieve things easily. They too in one way or the
other had felt depressed and messed up. But while you give reasons why you cannot
do things, they gave themselves reasons why they have to do things. Flannery o’ Connor says “where you come from
is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are
is no good unless you can get away from it. Is there a place for you to be...
in yourself right now is the entire place you've got”.
The place of execution on
the other hand is a place where what matters most is action (doing). It is a
place where after all the analysis; you stand to your feet to do something. The
people there are action inclined. They think like the lepers at the gate of
Samaria who were not afraid to take a risk. They said one to another “why sit
we here until we die? If we say we will enter unto the city, then the famine is
in the city and we shall die there and if we sit still here we die also. Now
therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians; if they save us
alive, we shall live, and if they kill us, we shall but die”. Like every one
us, they were fully informed of the economic circumstance. But ironically what
they were afraid of never existed!
You have to choose
between the place of excuse and the place of execution. Gary Snyder says, “Find your place on the planet.
Dig in and take responsibility from there”.
To be continue……..
For critics, comment or
suggestion
Contact:
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fbn.prince@mail.com
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