Nearly a century ago the Wright Brothers invented the airplane as we know it today. In the 1930s German chemist and Austrian-Swedish physicist, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered that atom could be split into simpler units, this discovery ultimately led to what is popularly known as Fission. In the year 1957 the USSR launched the first satellite into space, bringing the world into a new era. Almost a century ago the US Department of Defence (DOD) sponsored or created a program—or a means of communication that without any form of exaggeration completely revolutionised the human mind: The Internet. Over five thousand years ago the human race discovered the use of crude oil as fuel, and as at the late 20th century almost everything on the planet was powered by crude oil in its various processed forms.
We have finally entered into another month of the year, the month of February. And as usual we send our friends and relatives beautiful text messages, wishing them long life and prosperity. We could feel the excitement causing through our veins, the adrenaline pulsing through our minds as we imagine ourselves achieving that mega goal we’ve set ourselves to achieve this month and through the year. Probably some of us have promised ourselves that this month we were going to speak to that diva in class that we’ve always been too shy to approach. Some of us want to have the highest GPA others... well- they just want the world to remain the same.
This moment I want us all to calm down, take a deep breath and relax. Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in...Breathe out. Let those dreams and burdens in our mind out for a while, feel the gentle hands of the evening breeze caressing you, hear the sound of the ocean waves... feel the warmth of nature’s love around you. Become yourself, become a child once more—nonchalant and contented.
Now I want you to ask yourself in that state of tranquillity: What are the consequences of your actions?
Sir Isaac Newton, arguably one of the greatest scientists in all of history, postulated a theory in the 18th century known as Newton’s First Law Of Motion, which states that: action and reaction and equal and opposite. Each day of our lives we make thousands of decisions and a few of these are life changing, some of them we consider negligible others- we just sigh and say to ourselves, “it does not matter.” These decisions we make affect our everyday life: we decide which clothes we wear to work or to school, which friend we hang out with, which school we go to, what course to read, we decide the church we attend... but there are some things we do not decide. Like we cannot decide which country to be born into, we cannot choose the type of DNA we like; we cannot decide which race we are be born into.
Decisions...decisions... decisions.
I would like to write perhaps a thousand pages on this topic but I’m afraid I cannot, because—well--then, I’d be boring you so let us just get straight to the fact and the truth of the fact.
The fact is that our lives are greatly affected by the things we decide and cannot decide. The fact is that those little things we ignore: like ‘the small money wen I see for ground’, the subtle hints the lecturer gives in the classroom, the little dots and commas as we read our books, the smile on our neighbours face, the difficulty that diva is having with maths or literature, that friend that has been there by your side... those little, very little things, go a very long way in affecting us. Look at it like this: little + little = Big; very little + very little + very little + very little = Big. There is always an accumulation, even if you fail to notice it; that is how we get ourselves into a lot of trouble and ask ourselves or our friends and sometimes even God- “Why is this happening to me?” “Why did I fail that subject?” “How do I speak with that girl?” “Why I’m I sick?” and a million other questions.
The fact has been that, and is that, and will continue to be that: very little become little, and little becomes big, and big accumulates’ into mega or super big.
Now I want us to breathe in... Breathe out. Do it again, this time a little slower than before... Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out.
In this state of tranquillity I want you to think back; think back to high school, think back to your first year in college, remember that old neighbourhood you moved from, recall your best friends in grade school, remember your favourite cartoon, recall the countless advice and support your parents or friends has been giving you. As you reminisce about your past I want you to ask yourself these questions: Is there any one I could have influenced positively that I ignored- perhaps that boy that always came last in class? Could I have answered any question better? Did I say thank you enough to those who took care of me? Where are my best friends in grade 3? Did I really act like a Christian in my high school or did I just follow the system?
As we meditate on those questions let us go back to paragraph one. In paragraph one of this article, I highlighted some points in history that are of great significance and importance especially from the 20th century. I want us to examine the next paragraph in light of our topic: Consequences of our actions:
The Airplane and every other unit metal that now travel the skies were invented to improve the safety and expedite the movement of people and goods from one place to another, today instead of that we have: Jet Fighters, Smart Missiles, and countless other flying metals that use the same principles invented by the Wright Brothers solely for destruction. In the 1930s the US government had begun to think about alternate source of energy, Europe also was not left out due to the ever increasing need for better and lasting source of power. This led Hahn and Lise to their discovery of Atomic Energy, gotten from the breaking down of big atoms into smaller atoms. But, only ten years from then, the Atomic Weapon—one of the deadliest weapons ever made by man, was created and detonated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6, 1945. Not only that, only fifty years later the Hydrogen / Nuclear Bomb was made from the same principle Hahn and Lice discovered about half a century ago. The case of the internet is no different, with the invention of the WWW there is barely any privacy left in the world, somebody can hack into my computer at his own privacy from any part of the world. There has been a wide spread of false information on a global scale. For crude oil, the air we breathe—the air the entire human race breathes is anything but oxygen these days, due to the enormous amount of carbon discharge from factories and vehicles into the atmosphere. The same thing for satellites: there are now satellites that can incinerate anything on the planet thousands of miles from the earth.
Consequences of our actions...
No one can deny that these discoveries has helped the world immensely and my aim for writing this article is not to criticise these awesome inventions, but merely to adjourn you to take another look back at the road and see how far your decisions have led you. Just like some of these inventions were invented with the best of intentions but were latter utilised for evil deeds, so are some of our actions today.
Some of us might want to be the Einstein of our generation, the Shakespeare of our time, the Mandela of our era; having within our reach the capability to influence the lives of countless generations to come. We have mega and super mega dreams we want to become reality, and sometimes because of too much of Hollywood we expect magic. We think our fortune would just come knocking at our doors begging to be taken.
Dear brother or sister I want to tell you that it’s purely a myth. Everything in life is a pattern, and every choice we make adds to that pattern. You are where you are today because of the strings of decisions you’ve been making since you could decide for yourself what you want from life. So the truth of the fact is that: There is no witch in the village destroying your destiny, there is no magic to passing an exam, there is no special handsomeness needed to enable you speak to that diva in class, there are no mistakes in life. Your destiny is what you decide it to be. If you study harder and spend less time on the internet and other social activities you will pass your exams. If you only notice that, the crush of your life is failing a subject you’re good at, you could walk up to her and offer to teach her after class. If you look very, very closely at the mirror you’d find out that there are absolutely no mistakes in life-- just strings of choices, a definite pattern, taking and changing shape every single day.
Our choices have consequences whether we want them or not; whether we like it or not. And some of them like those awesome inventions, although intended for good may have very bad consequences in the nearest future if not properly checked. If you are familiar with the computer keyboard one of the most important keys is the Backspace. When you make a mistake you hit the key and it takes you back to where you made the mistake, you erase it and type in the correct word and bam! Everything is perfect. But sadly life does not have a backspace key. We can’t go back in time and erase our mistakes, but while we are still alive and have the strength, we can pause for a while and consider ourselves: take inventory of our lives, recall the ways we have strayed and make corrections.
It’s a new month and the year is still fresh ...Breathe in...Breathe out...Breathe in Breathe out...
Take another look at the mirror and I promise you, you would avoid ‘oh, had I known’ at the end of the race.
I want to say a very big happy new month to everyone out there. And big thanks to Ebitams and Prof P, and a few others who have one way or another inspired me with their lives.
Its Prof Ezyclems once more saying a big thank you to all those that had the patience to read through this long article, I hope it helped you in some way. If it did you can like the article and share with your friends—keep the good news flying through the pages!
Last Words: You are free to choose, but remember: you will live with the consequences that your choice prescribes- Prof Ezyclems.
