He
is more of a hero who has conquered himself, than he who has taken the best
fortified city.
~Ovid.
I
have a bad habit of pushing the speed limits between work and home everyday. I
don’t break them; technically, I just do what I’ve got to do. I know a few folk
may have noticed. They roll their eyeballs and mutter, ‘There he goes again.
The loony young guy in a Civic and a suit that drives up a sandstorm every
morning. Mschew.’ But a man has got to get his twice daily dose of adrenaline.
I
was stepping on the British turtle one evening when it hit me. Thankfully, not
literally. If you don’t have anything, have
brakes. You’ve got to have good brakes. A car without brakes is a
glorified coffin on wheels. Whether a 2015 Bently, a 2011 Benz or a 1974
Beetle; you don’t go at breakneck speeds and expect not to break a neck and a
limb or two if your hydraulics are not that good. Been there, done that, rammed
into a tow truck. Seriously. I think I know why aviator and inventor
Malcolm Loughead bothered to conceive the hydraulic thing in 1918.
That’s
the mechanical equivalent of a man without self-control. It’s like hurtling
through life without brakes. And life is more like Ikeja
under bridge than a
freeway. You’re guaranteed countless casualties. My professor grandfather used
to pray almost every day in Yoruba that we would not have a head on collision
with or be rear-ended by catastrophe. The elders called it agbako-
the mother of all cataclysms. That’s bound to happen when the disc, drum, pads
and oil are broke. Check your brakes so you can stop when you have to. Like an
uninhibited kid in a candy store. Like a gold digger in a short red prom dress
on a date with a spendthrift. Like Popeye in a spinach buffet. Like an
overweight diabetic at a 7-course meal dinner. Like a bear in a pantry of honey
jars. Like geeky literati in a bookstore. By all means, go through life at 180
kmph; but check your brakes.
I
have seen it in a celebrity pastor destined to naturally inseminate multiple
members of his congregation. A gifted business manager with a PhD in emerging
markets destined to siphon multinational funds and end up a lifer in Kirikiri.
A community icon husband and father of 3 destined to elope with his 24 year old
secretary and brand his kids for life with hate. A college freshman destined to
grey paying off his 1 year old mutant credit spent on things he really can not
remember to impress people who really did not matter at times they really were
not watching. I have seen it in politicians eating the cake of the nation with
both hands and dying of constipation. I have seen it in me and in you.
To
overcome our own passions, requires more steady management, than obtaining
victory over an enemy. Better is he who rules his spirit than he that takes a
city.
~Jedidiah
ben David
*Gk:
derived from en and kratos (strength). Properly translated
self-control, continence. Refers to the self rule of a man over the evil
propensities of his nature and the power of ascendency we have over exciting
and evil passions of all kinds. Described in a letter to the Galatians as the fruit
of the spirit. 5:22,23
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