IT IS YOUR MESS, CLEAN IT! by Idede Oseyande
A few years ago, while I was working as a field engineer in one of the rural communities in the northern part of Edo state, we experienced a festival that is held once every four years.
It is a big gathering that usually brings the sons and daughters of the land back home. It used to be a beehive of activities during the period.
During the festival, we hung out on a particular night towards the climax of the events, and there was more than enough drinks to go round. Everyone had their brand in whatever capacity they wanted, and we went home afterwards.
That night, as common with alcoholics, most of my colleagues exceeded their limit. By the time we got back home, they started to vomit and mess up their rooms.
At that time, there was a new employee who was yet to have a personal room, so he was paired temporarily with another worker.
This new employee came home that night and found that his roommate had messed the whole room up with his vomit.
The young man went to the bathroom, brought a bucket of water and the mopping stick, and gave the guy to clean up the mess he had created.
The next morning, while the discussion about what happened the previous night was ongoing, the guy who was made to clean his mess was angry with his roommate.
“You are not nice at all,” he said, “you had no pity for me, you couldn’t help me clean up last night”.
“why should I? Were you forced to take the drink?” the other guy retorted.
This was similar to what Noah did in the Bible story as stated. Noah made a vineyard and brewed wine. He had more than enough and was so drunk to the point of uncovering himself in his bedroom.
His son saw him and mocked him. Let’s concentrate on Noah for once and leave out his son. Noah was a grandfather, an elder, who should have known from experience what excessive wine was capable of doing. Still, he fell for it. And instead of owning up to his ‘fuck up’, he had the guts to curse the one who laughed at his foolishness.
This is the mindset of many people. You tend to blame someone else for your mess. Everyone else did wrong except you. You cook up lame excuses to defend yourself and then pass the blame to others.
You woke late and it resulted in you running late for work, and then you lose your temper at the commercial bus driver who stops to buy fuel on the way.
If you must break the ceiling and meet your goals, you must learn to own up to your mess and clean it.
You created the mess, you should be able to fix it too!
Idede Oseyande
(c)2022
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