As a six-year old, one of my greatest fears-apart from being left in a dark room alone and having to walk through a dark lonely path at night-was being driven under a Tunnel or an Overhead Bridge! You know the insides of a typical Nigerian Tunnel or Bridge is hardly ever lit and as dark as can be. This served as fuel for my over-active imagination. I would imagine such places as good hiding spots for various scary creatures that could catch me if I left my eyes open. Since I was never the one driving the car, the simple solution for me was to close my eyes as soon as we approached and open them as soon as I was sure that we had passed such places.
This, in my opinion, made the creatures powerless or to simply go away these days passing through Tunnels or under Bridges, I simply wonder why they cannot be beautified and well lit like those in other countries. The only time I would not want to find myself alone or with company at such spots now is if the car I’m travelling in breaks down. That would make one a target for attack by miscreants! So, what happened to my Monsters? I really can’t tell when I stopped believing in them. I just noticed many years later that I was passing through a Tunnel and had my eyes wide open! The bottom line is that when we look at life with the eyes of children, things are not always what they seem to be Children are generally innocent or naive and see life as a bed of roses.
Life really is more complex than that! Life has its ups and downs and is not really about the fairy tales we read as children. For instance, it’s not about Cinderella stories and happily ever afters. Its about challenges and facing up to them. Life is about learning about the good and the bad and being able to make a choice. It’s about deciding what you want to make out it and knowing that some mistakes could cost you very dearly. Life, my dear reader, is also about opportunities. Opportunity they say cannot be regained once lost. Our lives are about trying to be as clear-headed as possible so as not to miss opportunity when it come’s calling.
Childhood is a very important part of our lives because that is when we acquire a lot of attitudes, skills and general knowledge which would be useful to us in our adult lives. It is also a time to be careful because some steps we take during that period can make or mar our future. This is why we need the wisdom and guidance of adults. Adulthood is that time in our lives when we become fully physically mature. The expectation is however that we also become psychologically more focused. It is at this point that most things which were unclear to us earlier become crystal clear; the scales fall from our eyes. An adult knows that there are no monsters hiding behind the doors or in dark rooms and that the only place where Cinderella exists is in the story books. You realize that there is no point dreaming or fantasizing about something when you can spend precious time working for it if it is reasonable or going after a more realistic target. Being grown-up is to understand that in life, every action has a consequence.
At this point, you can look back and laugh about some of your childhood fears. You can tell younger ones when they refuse to listen to advice that they would not understand until they grow older; just like you may not understand the sense in everything you are told now! This is why we need adults to put us through now. When we are young, we see life in an entirely different way from adults, but they have seen everything (or almost everything!) They have learnt lessons both the hard and easy ways. Very often, they know the likely outcomes of steps we want to take and try to steer us away from trouble. What do we have to lose by listening to them? Practically nothing! On the contrary, we have about everything to gain. If someone has made a mistake in the past and sees we are about to make the same mistake, would I not be the better for listening to him or her? Or would I rather be disobedient and have to hear I told you so when I get my fingers burnt? It is better to listen to our elders advice even when we cannot see the sense in what they are saying. Ask for Allaah’s Guidance at all times especially when you are told to do something that makes no sense to you. In a number of years, when you are older, you will look back and understand! Salam Alaikum! Kindly look up these words in the Dictionary: Miscreants, Naive, Mar, Fantasizing.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited