Accra Traffic Lessons

I'm grateful to the traffic & streets of Accra for all it has taught me.
1. Automobiles are bigger than me and have no brain.
2. Automobiles don't always have an intelligent & alert driver behind the wheel.

It bothers me when pedestrians put common sense aside and depend on traffic laws for protection.
I had to slam on my brakes soon after I started backing out of a parking spot because I almost hit some woman walking by. She had that "hit me and you'll pay" look on her face.
Even in this US city where laws dictate that the pedestrian has the right of way, automobiles still whack them in large numbers!
Visiting GH after a year in the US, I took that false sense of security with me to the streets of Accra. There I was about to step into traffic thinking the drivers would see us and immediately stop for us to cross the street. Thank goodness my buddy yanked me back. No compensation would've been worth what could have followed.

I Need to Stop

I need to stop telling people to “work hard”.

It is one of many phrases that auto roll off my tongue when wishing someone a good day at work.

Working hard isn’t the best way to get the work done is it? I don’t think so.

Work efficiently. Now that's the ticket!!

To me, work hard means keep working at all times and never take a break for anything! You know, army bootcamp style. “Work hard” was pressure on me.  

“Work hard” has been good to me though.

I needed “work hard” because “work efficiently” sounds so weak, I would have walked all over it in primary school and college . It sucks that I must retire it from my vocabs.

Maybe I shouldn’t retire “work hard” just yet. Just in case I have a knuckle-headed kid like me someday, I’ll teach him to work efficiently. But I’ll have “work hard” and its pressure on stand-by just in case the rascal plays more than he works.

Happy Monday to you! Work efficiently. J

Humility

All my life, I had an incomplete understanding of "Humility".
I had one interpretation of it in my youth, and sped into adulthood with it.
I was a humble young man because I socialized with anybody I met, regardless of background.
Nothing could stop me from comfortably hanging with people
in places where others would be surprised to see me.

I am older now and I have learned that Humility is more than that.
One aspect of humility I am working on for me is to submit to reason and the good of humanity.
Shed that "You-can't-teach-me-a-darn-thing" attitude.

How do you define humility?

Equilibrium

As the years go by, I am convinced more each day that we are part of a system that has an equilibrium.
That must be why we don't always win all the time.
It is just the scale balancing out when I lose out on something precious. It must be someone else's turn to get it. Not my turn yet.
When I get a huge unexpected discount on something at the store, it must be that equilibrium.
An inbalance occurs when I keep more to myself than I'm supposed to, but someway somehow, equilibrium gets restored. Either through voluntary acts or it just happens
Somethings we just can't explain, but this is my basic visualization of how things work around me.

According to edictionary.com, equilibrium is "equal balance between any powers, influences, etc.; equality of effect."

A friend of mine recently agreed with me on my basic model but didn't like it as much anymore when I added that God is the one maintaining that equilibrium.

I'd like to know the most fundamental model you have, that expresses your view of how things work around you.

Takeovers

What happens when we fight each other and engage in civil wars?
Some other nation will step in and say they are here to save us from killing each other.
They will first destroy our crappy infrastructure when they fly-by and sprinkle bombs on us, kill a few of us in addition to the blood we are spilling.
When we have lost enough and get tired & hungry from the in-fighting, they will step up and
spend their money rebuilding our cities.

Guess who owns the re-built city now!?!

We are watching this movie live from Libya. I hope we learn from it and resolve our own problems by reasoning with each other and not by war games.

Them That Teach

It isn't always "Those that can't do, teach".
Respect to the true teachers out there. Those that teach because they love to help people grow.

(Thinking of my 1st grade teacher - Miss K. Wishing you good health & peace wherever you are.)

Dream Date With An Entertainer

If I could travel in time and spend a day with any entertainer, I'd chose to spend it with Bob Marley.
I'd want us to meet in Ghana.
We would start the dayout sitting on the porch at the house where I grew-up.
I'd tell him how my friends & I would sit out there listening to his words of wisdom. The good times.
I'd play some of my favorite reggae songs and find out the ones he likes.
Aburi would be a good place to go for lunch but we won't go there. He might catch a whiff of his wife and leave me hanging.
I'd love to ride with him in a canoe on the Volta river southbound.
He'd surely be inspired and play some songs.
The conversation would get deeper from here on as he tells me where his music comes from.
I'd ask him if the "Smile Jamaica" & the Zimbabwe independence concerts were the greatest things he ever used his music to serve.
We'd wrap the day up on a beach in Ada drinking coconut juice & playing soccer.

If you could travel in time, and had the opportunity to spend a day with an entertainer, who would you choose?