Abeg, Live Your Life

It seems like those who pamper their lives die faster. My Italian friend, a chain smoker, does not heed that warning on cigarette packs - that smokers are liable to die young. "The man who wrote that warning," he tells me, "was writing it with the right hand and smoking with the left." And he is approaching 80, this smoker!

We're more likely to lose the things we cherish to save. The young girl with an unwanted pregnancy never has miscarriage. The married woman pregnant after years of waiting risks losing it if she laughs too hard. Life is like that.

The rough guy in school who hardly read his books, who was written off for being too adventurous and reckless, is the owner of that new bubbling firm. Among his workers are the erstwhile efficos in class. Life is like that.

Back then in the village, one young man used to chase snakes wherever he saw them. His bravery was too risky. The animals appeared to have developed a biological alert for his presence, fleeing from his trouble whenever. Yet they routed their revenge towards his colleague who feared them, and once planted venom in his veins.

The mad man lives longer by rotten food. The wayward girl marries the most eligible bachelor in the neighborhood, while her "virtuous" peers sometimes wait longer. The Casanova wins the best girls. Life is like that.

Even Christ said it, that he who saves his life shall lose it!

Point is: there is no absolute rule or formula in life. One man advances by discretion; another, by indifference, and both can reach the same goal. Live your life!
Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu