fantasy

RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

/ Motunde Dada / Leave a comment

Have you ever skipped a day, I mean, omitted a day? I woke up this morning, thinking, hey… It is Wednesday, and Havilah needs to speak. I get on the laptop and realise it is Thursday, 5th June, not Wednesday, 4th June. All due apologies to my avid readers.

Feranmi was born into an upper-middle-class family with many domestic staff ranging from the gardener, steward, and cook to a personal maid. Her maid, Omawumi, was responsible for laundering her clothes among other tasks, and ensured she was impeccably dressed at all times. It therefore came as no surprise that Feranmi often won the neatness badge for her class. Her pleated uniform was always well starched and ironed, making her the envy of most of her classmates. It was indeed a feat to beat the sharp, clear edges of the pleats in her uniform with just the right amount of stiffness. The uniform was a complicated combination of box and side pleats that proved a challenge to most.

One evening after Omawumi had finished ironing Feranmi’s uniform, she took the ironed uniform on a hanger to Feranmi’s room. Later in the evening, Feranmi inspected the uniform and yelled out for Omawumi in an angry tone. Immediately Omawumi appeared, Feranmi started berating Omawumi and lashed out with angry words. Despite Omawumi’s apologies for the less-than-perfect state of the uniform, which she attributed to her ill health, Feranmi raged on. She raked up such a fuss that Feranmi’s mother was roused from her siesta and was forced to inquire about the cause of the rumpus. Feranmi immediately pointed to the uniform hanging in her wardrobe and blurted out, “Mom, see what Omawumi expects me to wear to school. How can I win the neatness badge with this?”

Feranmi’s mother was enraged at her daughter’s actions. She exploded, “Feranmi…you are insolent! Apologise to Omawumi immediately! Not only is she older than you, but you have no right to talk to her this way. You do not pay her salary, so you have no right to demand anything from her, and she is not answerable to you. Respect is reciprocal and if you want to be respected, you must respect others. Going forward, you must launder your school uniform yourself so that you learn to respect and appreciate the labour she puts into ensuring she feeds your ego. She is the person who deserves the Neatness badge because it is the direct result of her efforts.”

Feranmi’s mother ensured that Feranmi laundered her uniform herself and went through the frustrations of variability in starching results, coupled with the challenges of wrinkle-free ironing. After five fruitless attempts, Feranmi apologised profoundly to “Aunty Omawumi” and became much more respectful. She had learned to appreciate people’s efforts and respect for them, regardless of status. She had learnt respect for the individual.

Feranmi’s story reminds me of one of the Core Values of a company I once worked for. RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL was one of its core values, and it was emphasised. The resultant impact on overall productivity as a result of this value cannot be overstated. Staff were enthusiastic to put in their best efforts to achieve corporate goals.

It is therefore important that we instill this value into our children and ourselves, and it starts from how we as parents treat people around us, especially those in a lower social status than ourselves. May the Lord teach us the right things to do.

Love

Havilah

SMITING THE LIVING FOUNTAINS

/ Motunde Dada / 2 Comments

A couple of months ago, I was invited to a Community hymn singing in a traditional Anglican Church, and as we sang the hymn, “Father hear the prayer we offer” written by Love M. (Whitcomb) Willis, the wordings of the third stanza caught my attention…”Not forever by still waters do we ask our way to be, BUT WILL SMITE THE LIVING FOUNTAINS FROM THE ROCKS ALONG OUR WAY.” I pondered on what she could have meant. Undoubtedly, this bears a relationship to the biblical miracle in which Moses struck water from a rock for the Israelites in the wilderness. How would that relate to us today? Is it possible to obtain water from a rock? Certainly, there are aquifers which are rocks that contain groundwater and can be accessed through drilling and pumping. However, drilling is hard work so I believe the concept Madam Willis had, was that strenuous effort will be applied to achieve the goal. As the concept became clearer, the life of Satu played before me.

Satu, is the only child of a widowed mother who had struggled hard in their little village to give her an education. However, she could not finish her secondary school education as a result of lack of funds, so she was given out in marriage at the earliest possible time. Her husband worked as a Cordwainer (shoemaker) with one of the shoe manufacturing outlets in the city. In the city, young Satu enrolled with the famous Pitman’s College for secretarial studies, specialising at the time in typing and shorthand. Armed with certification, she located an employer who typed on a busy street and was agreeable to a sharing ratio on jobs she executed. Satu was enthused and put in her best as she strove to augment the young family of four’s expenses. One fateful day, fortune smiled on her as she typed. She was approached by a bank official who had observed and admired her diligence from afar. He observed her as he took his lunch every day at an eatery down the road from where Satu operated. The officer was saddled with the responsibility of recruiting contract labour to type certain documents on a one-off basis. Needless to say, Satu impressed the bank and when they needed to recruit a permanent staff, she was given the opportunity.

Immediately Satu got her foot in the door, her determination and doggedness to succeed and offer her children a much brighter opportunity than she had experienced, took root and she did all necessary examinations, culminating in an admission to read Law on a part-time basis in one of the prestigious universities in the city. She plodded through the challenges of balancing work, home and school and graduated without any carryovers or delays. One would have expected Satu to relax, after all, she earned a reasonable income and was able to single-handedly educate her children to university level, but not so with Satu. She was insatiable. She set her sights on becoming  a professional. After her children were through with their university education, Satu attended the Law School and was called to the country’s bar. Did she stop…No. Satu went on to train as a Chartered administrator and so after retirement, the little village girl has expanded her horizon, lives on her own property in the city, runs a thriving practice, and visits her children and grandchildren who are currently in the diaspora.

Her story is indeed one huge success story born out of God’s favour and grace, coupled with a determination backed by positive action toward achieving her goal.

Back to Ms. Willis hymn, we can and should be encouraged to smite the living fountains from the rocks along our way. May the Lord grant us empowerment to fulfil our dreams.

Love

Havilah