During the Cold War, Germany was divided into East and West Berlin separated by an iron curtain, otherwise known as the Berlin Wall. As victims of communist ideology that excluded religion, one day, some people in East Berlin took a truck load of garbage and dumped it on the West Berlin side.
The people of West Berlin could have done the same thing, but they chose not to. Rather, they took a truck load of canned goods, bread, milk and other provisions, and neatly stacked it on the East Berlin side. On top of this stack they placed the sign: “EACH GIVES WHAT HE HAS”. When you are full of hate, you cannot give love.
In 2019, I dedicated my Facebook page celebrating friends on their birthdays as my schedules would permit me to do. It was a tip of how I would love to celebrate people whose presence on this street has added values to our lives. It was an act of gratitude to those friends whom the so-called celebrities feel must always celebrate others but might not be celebrated.
To my learned friends who have been reading my articles, it was embarrassing being bored with flashy photos of friends. Some of my friends viewed my decision as undignified of my status. Others who feared for my reputation took to my inbox advising that I return to public policy analysis.
As 2019 winds up and 2020 dawns, it is not the criticisms of what I did in 2019 that weigh me down, but the love I could not show. Therefore, to those friends, I could not celebrate, I would wish to apologise and seek your understanding; it was not intentional.
To friends who would have wished otherwise, I heard all your voices and understood your concerns. However, I would say that each person gives what he or she has. My primary calling is to bless and to love, and my professional status is most dignified when I show love to those who may unlikely get it from people. Sometimes in trying to be professionally correct, we have ended up in excluding the poor.
When we choose whom to celebrate, we are not being diplomatic but hypocritic. When we use inbox rather than timeline or comment box to celebrate friends, we betray our evil intention, because every evil is committed in privacy. When we consider some people too illiterate, low, ugly, or whatever to feature on our walls or to deserve our comments, we only show what we have- pride and superiority complex.
When we are full of hate, pride, superiority complex, we cannot give love. Let’s make 2020 a year of love. Less hate, less pride, less rancour, less fight, less bitterness! These are the only ways to go. We are all sons and daughters of love; and we all have been called to the vocation of love. Let us be silent about the good we could not do, because each person gives what he or she has.
Happy New Year!
