What is real and what is ideal

[Heal the world x Michael Jackson]

Challenging Conventional Wisdom.

The world is not going to change, you are. We all see this world through an idealistic eye. Bright sunshine and smiles, cotton candy, ponies and everything nice. At the same time the world shows us how it truly is. Children with bones bursting out of their malnourished souls, mass graves, war heroes, poisoned lakes and slums. The current state of the world is definitely not terrific, I agree. But I don’t understand why we all think that a particular person or group of persons should be the incendiary bomb.

We continue to brainwash infants with the idea that the world is a great place. By adolescence we tell them that it’s a hard and unforgiving place. Adulthood, we are too busy trying to survive that we don’t know what to do but survive it. Old age, we sing heal the world. Like it was ever broken. The world is not going to change, you are.

As a child I witnessed a natural phenomenon that didn’t have any particular ideological bearing on me, just some pain and discomfort. I saw a hawk or some other predatory bird fiercely steal not one, but three chicks from a hen. This hen had struggled for twenty one days tending to her eggs, keeping them safe and alive. What wrong had she ever done to the Hawk who took no mercy in the act? The Hawk too needed to survive. It was merely satisfying a very basic need of survival, nourishment. As a child I didn’t know who to pity and who to blame in the situation. I felt the Hawk was cruel and the Hen, rather unfortunate. Perhaps we should change the world so that the three chicks could have lived a long and fulfilling life, and the Hawk would survive without having to look so sinister.

Heal the world, make it a better place. Was it ever broken? The quicker we accept that the world as we know it will not change for me or you so that we can be happy and satisfied. Its change is inevitable, but we shouldn’t rely solely on that and live our lives. The only incendiary bomb we need is ourselves. If you want to live a happy and successful live, start working towards it. The world is not going to hand it to you just because you are you. Heal your world, make it a better place for you, if your world is broken.

This is not a self-help article, it is just plain truth. I am very happy to share my point of view with you, but I’m even happier knowing that many people will not pay attention to it. That just the world for you, everything can’t be perfect. I’ve accepted that truth therefore I can grow.

Have a Nice Life.

 

 

Thank You

Challenge number 7: Write a letter to you.

[Andrea Bocelli]

I’ve never believed in external forces pulling people who are meant to be together, together. With us I’m tempted to accept this.

I could spend hours constructing the most delightful things to say to you and make you feel good. Just because I have that magical effect on you. But this time I’m trying something different. I just want to say Thank You. It may feel like I say this way too often and don’t really mean it. You have no idea how much I do. What am I thanking you for? What am I not to thank you for? Without you there still will be Hakeem, just a radically abnormal one. You didn’t single handedly make me, you did more.

Sometimes I could get so bored and say the most meaningless things but you tolerate my shit. When I feel so uninspired and have no believe in myself, I go to you. Partly because I look up to you, and also because you have the most appropriate things to say. I can hate you so much that I want to feed you to alligators, but then you show me why I love you. And life goes on in the jungle.

So yeah, Thank You, and I pray I get the chance to keep on thanking you Nana Akua. I love you.

 

Have a wonderful life.

Eye Sea

[ Osibisa x Coffee Song]

Challenge 6: What Does It make me think of?

 

Punishment is supposed to decrease a behavior, or so we like to assume. Is punishment always effective? With this particular challenge, I’m supposed to write what this particular picture makes me feel. It is punishment for me cheating in my previous challenges, something I don’t agree with but I can’t do anything about. So here goes.

 This picture or artefact makes me feel angry and uncomfortable for very obvious reasons. It’s very childish and a tad vague, but not entirely abstract. Simultaneously, it makes me feel very happy. Not because of the cute, white cat presenting a cake to me, or the shimmering glitter on it. Not even because it’s supposed to represent love, but rather because it’s a HUGE challenge.

I’m always ranting about how I’m not being challenged to the extent I want to. Now I’m presented with this and I have my jaw in my palm. “That’s life it’s wicked, that’s right we live it. “

I decided not to cheat not because the punishment worked, but because I promised not to. When I cheat, I’m presented with a more difficult challenge. This ends up making my writing a whole lot better. Forgive me if I decide to reinforce this behavior.

 

 

Stay Blessed.

 

Heavenly Words

Challenge number 5: The third line from the Last song you listened to.

 

[Tom Scott x Today]

As soon as I saw this challenge I knew I had to cheat. I was not going to ruin this chance to expose my audience to awesome lyricism. So sorry, this is not going to be the third line from the last song I listened to, but rather two of the lines that have struck me.

This means a lot to me. Music is my Aphrodite. Too many dope lyrics to choose from, but I can’t waste my time typing lines from the thousands of songs I’ve heard. I just chose two. The first is from Jay Z, the most versatile lyricist of all time. I chose this line because of it’s something everyone can relate to in one way. It’s from the song D’evils of his debut album Reasonable Doubt.

“It gets dangerous, money and power is changing us

And now we’re lethal, infected with D’evils”

It totals the subject matter of the song. How modern man’s quest and obsession for money and power poisons and corrupts us. The song is a very vivid description of life for most African American men in the man-made jungle of New York. This song and the whole Reasonable Doubt album is a must listens. Jay Z display his intricate and elaborate skill at the art of rapping, it contains a lot of honest stories. I decree that every living soul listen to it or loose your head.

The second song quote is from a relatively new act. Pop sensation Lorde. Its bullshit for anyone to say she doesn’t deserve her two Grammys. For a seventeen year old, her song writing is phenomenal. The line is from the song Royals.

“I cut my teeth on weeding rings in the movie”

What captivated me was the expression “cut my teeth”. How many seventeen year olds even know what it means? Everyone is “driving Cadillac’s in their dreams” after hear the song. But not many took time to understand the song. It relates to the first song, modern man’s obsession with materialism, consumerism, the whole family of greed and excessive unnecessary want. What Lorde does is that she accepts that not everyone will get to be a queen or king, so she is going to be a Queen in her own way.

The post is not to eulogize any musical act or insult anyone’s intelligence. I’m simply showing my love for music to the world.

Have an amazing day

 

 

“When the ink dries and the pages turn to dust, so will we”

 

Boundless and Infinite

Boundless and infinite

I want to kiss the dirtied sand every day,
And carry away all humanity’s filth.
I want to throw myself at them,
Wash them with my cleaning sweat.
Because i am boundless and infinite

I want to give them light to see,
And burn their evil thoughts to ash.
I want to help their seeds sprout
And shrink their bloated stomachs.
watch the grass grow evenly, as we rise and fall.
Because i am boundless and infinite.

I want for us to want what i want.
So we can be boundless and infinite.

The “_” Words

Challenge number four: why would you or would you not use swear words? 

[Jay Z x 99 Problems]

Expression. Power. I don’t understand modern man’s dissatisfaction with the use of certain “unruly” or “uncouth” words. Why would I use such words? Do I need a reason to?

When someone says something like “nigga” or “faggot” or “bitch”, my immediate reaction is that it’s a joke. You can’t expect a rational human being to find them ‘offensive. I don’t think it has anything to do with upbringing or “manners”. It’s basically just a lifestyle choice. The same way some people decide to cover their hair, not wear earrings, or tattoo their skin or fall in love with people of the same sex.

I am not justifying this behavior. Existing social conventions in my part of the world brand this act as disrespectful. What do I know? I’m just a kid with a pen and pad. Words like “fuck”, and “bitch” are not things I’ll just blast out of my mouth. It can be the best and most honest expression to use in some cases. But I won’t abuse the use.

Bottom line. It all has to do with the speaker and the one being spoken to. If y’all are cool with such language, then cool. But if there is a row concerning these expressions among y’all, then a compromise must be reached.

It’s like placing a cyanide capsule in your mouth. You decide to bite it. I won’t justify nor criticize the use of such expressions. The power they have is from you.

Have a nice day.