CONTINUE WITH YOUR WORK O

 

I was thinking this morning.... Days ago, I stepped out to take a walk within the estate. Two streets away, I observed a teenage boy locked in conversation with a young girl in front of her house. As I got closer, I looked at the girl straight in her eyes and she immediately said with a shaky voice 'gu gu good morning sir,' like someone caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I immediately knew what was going on.

As I walked away, I remembered my days as a teenager in the late 80s. I was at the age where boys were boys and were testing their girls' toasting skills. In one of our evening girls scouting rendezvous, one of us approached a young lady and was delivering his lines with all diligence, while the rest of us stood aside. Suddenly, the girl sighted her dad walking towards them and ducked. The young man immediately took dressing, bent down, and pretended to be doing something meaningful. 

As the girl's father came close, he looked straight at the young man and said, in a very rich yoruba accent, "Dooh. Continue with your work oo. Continue with your work." Before the young man could respond to what he thought was an appreciation and encouragement from an ignorant man, the next statement shocked him. The girl's father concluded, "Continue with your work. Be chasing my daughter." Our guy froze while the rest of us laughed out loud.

That day, I learnt a lesson not to second guess people. Wait for them to land before you assume you know what they have in mind. Many times, we think we know what people want to say even before they say it. We might even believe we have the gift of mind reading. Meanwhile, na over sabi dey worry us. No wonder Warri man says, 'Na over sabi make husband call im wife mummy.'

As I became a father, I understood the folly of children and teenagers thinking they are playing an adult, not realising the adult can see right through their acts long before they even started. That they didn't say anything does not imply they are ignorant. After all, no be eye wey dem take chop eba dem take dey share meat. There are things you handle with wisdom. The bible in Proverbs 3:5-6 cautioned against being overconfident or presumptuous. Be wise.

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey