ANIKE DIARY with Oludolapo Okunniga
If you are not driving by yourself and you have to be at UI or Bodija, let’s say from Challenge, then you will have to board a cab to Mokola, then take another taxi going to either Ojoo-UI or Bodija. You need those means of transport and the drivers to link those routes and get you to your destination.
That is it with every journey..air…sea…road. Connectivity.
We are created to co-exist in this planet, we are creatures that survive on relationships. We exist to connect. To link. To survive on each other. That is why we say that no man is an island.
In that connectivity, we meet different kinds of people and that may define our relationship. Parasitic or Symbiotic. If parasitic, you may need to expunge the parasite so that you can leave a healthy life before that life is sucked out of you. Symbiotic relationship is good. Give and take.
Human relationships are however more complex than these two examples.
We need people to grow, to connect, to expand. And (he or she) begins the connection from the forming of the embryo from the fusion of cells, to when the child is in the womb and takes food and nutrients through the placenta from its mother.
After it comes to life, it begins to survive on its mother’s nutritious breast milk. Then formula, and thereafter, semi solids and solids. The parents and, sometimes, relatives are there to care and nurture through the early stages of life.
When he begins formal education, his teachers become the second link. Guiding his steps, encouraging him to hone his talents. Right in school, be begins to form friendships. He chooses his friends. Or they chose him. These choices are highly influential and defining in his life. They may make or mar him.
To the work place, he meets another experience with his coworkers and superiors, employers and would have to learn how to relate to and manage people. These relationships are not linear.
He meets people across spheres of life. Friends of friends. Neigbours. Random people. The intelligent. The sane. The weird. The lunatics. The kind hearted. The envious. The beautiful ones. The resentful ones. The list is endless. We can relate. We meet some. We are some. And on it goes.
Then at some point, he meets his life partner and that is whole big deal. That link is vital to the next generation. They may not even be life partners, but one time lovers who providentially created a future between them. Relationships are that complicated.
Then came social media, which served as platforms for huge connectivity. Reconnect with old friends. Meet new friends. With a space to accommodate a maximum of five thousand friends.
With that huge opportunity also comes avenues for connections to business opportunities, work opportunities and platforms for self expression.
With the social media also comes the sinister side, monitoring, sneaking, even fights. As it turns out there are now more “friends” on social media than in actual life. So, how many friends do we really need?
In spite of people we meet, or will still meet, relationships and platforms are needed for advancement but in reality, we need a few good friends. To surround you, to encourage you and to help you if necessary. You need friends to genuinely celebrate with you on your successes and commiserate with you during your difficult times and vice versa.
You don’t need to take social media too serious except for mutually beneficial relationships. That is how to get rid of pests who may want to provoke you. That kind of energy should be deflected and deleted immediately. It is energy-sapping and would build negative energy around you.
We need interconnectivity in our lives but in our personal space, we don’t need friends as wild and as tangled as a lunatics beard. We need people. We co-exist in relationships. But we actually need a few good friends.
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