By Onoja Emmanuel
Life is full of twists and turns. Tables are still turning. In other words, today might be your turn and it may be for another person tomorrow. Life can be so unpredictable that if you don’t have this rudiment understanding, you begin to write off people haphazardly. That is premature.
We are often tempted to think those that are not doing well as us are lazy and unlucky. As such we snub them and treat them with disdain. We just conclude they will not amount to much. In our mind, we will not need them for anything; How so untrue.
Life is cyclical. It is foolhardy to write off anybody in this life because we think they are below us and they will not be useful. According to a wise saying among the Yorubas ‘even a bad boy has his own day’. I recall that during the lockdown here in Lagos, a group of urchins and riffraff known as one million boys tormented Lagosians. They gave us sleepless nights as people had to observe vigil to protect their lives and property. Interestingly, during that period, it was the ‘bad boys’ in the streets that came out to defend us from the marauding thugs.
It is funny when things start turning around for people we once looked down on. And it becomes funnier when we now need their assistance. How do we approach them? With guilt or shame? It does not have to be that way. Imagine you have a broke neighbor or a junior colleague that you aren’t nice to because of their financial status. After many struggles, he got a good job where you have been applying to. And now you need his help.
It does not cost anything to be good to people regardless of their social or economic class but it cost a lot not to be nice. Tables are still turning. It might turn against you tomorrow. Resist the urge to write people off, otherwise you will receive a shocker soon.
