Welcome to a great time with me on "Discovery".
I was in the vehicle last week when I caught a remarkable picture of a slum in Lagos, Nigeria. They have no roads, only pathways that are barely tread-able with bare feet - most of them don't wear slippers except they are going out of the slum. Tagging the environment as dirty will be far-fetched since it is the communal living condition of the slum's inhabitants. I think “dirty” will come up only if someone did any obscene thing like defecating in broad daylight on the road.
Little kids ran through tiny holes between the little sheds that housed individual families. These kids were scantily dressed; the best dressed of them had a dirty, slackened t-shirt or singlet worn on sagging panties. The entire sight was quite interesting but highly undesirable.
Life for most of us is similar to a slum. Though we live in wealthy homes, work in blue chip organisations and prestigious firms, and live large on fat chickens and pepper soup, we fail to realize that our lives are a little like life in slum. In a way, we are comfortable with life as it is right now, but many of us will admit that our lives are in a great mess. We seem not to be in control of things any more, and it bothers us so deeply that we can’t explain it.
Slums are highly disorganized, highly disorderly and lawless places. For a motto, “Anything goes” will pass. It is not untrue that societal status, financial finesse and other admirable factors do not civilize a person; rather they expose the inconsistencies in the person. Greatness does not promote discipline rather it exposes indiscipline.
People who lead slum lives in big cities will not get away with it for too long. Sooner or later, their inconsistencies will be exposed for the whole world to see. In our big cities across the world, we have slum communities that are not characterized by unkempt young women, scantily dressed kids and lack of roads, stagnant gutters and flood; but by high levels of personal indiscipline, character inconsistencies, infidelity and undependability, indulgence and addiction, malpractices and abuse.
I believe that civilization is a culture that brings one closer to a desired kind of life. But disorder corrupts civilization except it is constantly checkmated. It is imperative, if we are to achieve personal greatness, to guard ourselves against being corrupted by slum living which is fast becoming an epidemic.
My advice to you is: Do not conform to a disorderly lifestyle, rather get civilized by changing your life values. If you must prove the truth about your innate potential for personal greatness which distinguishes leaders, refuse to conform.
The best of every living soul on earth is embedded within, and it is revealed without. What you decide is what you become, consciously or unconsciously. God never intended man to be dominated by another man, hence the right and power to make choices. In life, potential matters a lot; keep it intact by making the right choices.
