Friday, July 30, 2010

The Most Beautiful Word


The most beautiful word in any language is your name. This is not contestable! Regardless of your language, your name is superlative. It represents you because it is your primary means of identification.

According to wikipedia, a name is regarded as a label for a noun which identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person. There is peculiarity or distinctiveness in the way and manner a name relates to a language be it English, French or Yoruba.

In the ancient world, names were thought to be extremely powerful and to act, in some ways, as a separate manifestation of a person or deity. This is evident in the statement made by Juliet (in the drama, Romeo and Juliet): "What is in a name? That which call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". There's indeed power in a name.

Less wonder, it is opined to be a treasure better than gold. Instinctively, your name goes beyond your look, wealth and gold. It's your legacy. Some died preserving or protecting their names because it surely lived after them. Names transcend years and even centuries.

It is my understanding that there is everything in a name. For every name is connected with a form. In our Yoruba thought, naming a child is given a great importance. My parents had migrated from Akungba Akoko to Kaduna in Nigeria where they waited a while before I was born. My parents' joy of God's intervention and victory became the basis of my name. I was named "Oluwasegunfunmi (Olusegun for short)" and during my teenage, my mother explained to me that Olusegun means God has given me victory.

Sooner, I became conscious of the magnitude of my name coupled with the fact that I am an epitome of victory. This started vibrating in my psyche. A keen sense of self-reliance, growth, compassion, discipline, dedication, diligence, audacity, love, vigour and steadfastness became the extended meanings of the name. The person within me got transformed. Instead of pitying, sympathising my humble beginning, I started redefining life itself in my own unique way.

Yes there is everything in a name. Even today my name is my guide and a challenge in itself motivating me to live to it's meaning. The vibrating force behind the name is the GOD factor. No wonder, in my own part of the world, noone prays without my name being mentioned because it is the most beautiful word in the whole world.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Two Things


Left or Right; Good or Bad; Right or Wrong; Fast or Slow; Above or Below; Top or Bottom; Succeed or Fail; Short or Tall; Big or Small; Straight or Crook;Light or Darkness; Smart or Dull; Sweet or Bitter; True or False; Open or Close; Here or There; Far or Near; Male or Female; Foolish or Wise; Profit or Loss; Positive or Negative; First or Last…

The above array of real life dual concepts beget the term 'choice'. Apart from those that are dictated by nature, these twin scenarios are what we face in real life situation where we are compel to make choice which may in turn make or mar us. According to Brian Tracy, everything you do in life involves a choice, a decision on your part. Because you have so many options, you are constantly choosing among alternatives, between what you value more and what you value less.

Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of any of these twin options and selecting only one of them. Meanwhile a choice can be made between imagined options which may sound like "what would I do if ...?", but a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action.

Choice may be rational or otherwise. It may be intuitive or primitive. Most of the times , it depends greatly on cognition and feeling. There is no gainsaying that a sane man would choose bad and ignore good. But it's all happening in our society. People will choose to be wicked rather than being humane. Some people will be dinning and wining with ignorance at the expenses of knowledge which is attainable even in the woods.

Behold, your choices and actions tell you and others what you truly value the most, or intend that reveals your character. It is only what you do at the moment of choosing, especially when you have to choose between what is right and what is expedient. The choice you make today will make or mar your tomorrow.

Food-4-Thought:

“Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” -Alfred A. Montapert

Ain't you rather stand for that which is right?!

The Market of Hope

Oxford dictionary defined hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. Another version called archaic put i...