It takes a great fish
in the vastness of the ocean to attempt to swim against the tide. To be
uncommon is not common in an environment where commonness is a default. Of
course it is true that “you don’t get
harmony when everybody sings the same note”[i]-
Doug Floyd
It also takes a great
spirit to stand up for what is right, pulling away from the gravitational
forces of mediocres who don’t understand how it is that you are going against nature
or sometimes limiting and inhibiting nuture. They will do everything possible
to pull you down. The great Albert Einstein captured it succinctly when he said
that “great spirits have always found
violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a
man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary”[ii].
Let me ask, won’t it be
too much a burden for a 15 year old to carry these qualities of positive
uncommonness and an audacious bravado? For Malala Yousafzai, a 15 year old
school girl from the Swat District of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,
the answer is an emphatic NO!
This great spirit of a
girl has defied odds stacked up against her by the circumstances surrounding
her place of birth and residence in Pakistan, Swat (where the Taliban -who are
ruthless with anybody who go against their principles and prescribed way of
life- hold sway with all sorts of restrictions to fundamental human rights
especially the embargo placed on the girl child education and the frequent
bombardment of the Swat valley by the military who are trying to wrest the area
from their control) to emerge as a world celebrated Youth, Women and Education
activist who described the value she has chosen to place on her life thus:
“my purpose is to serve
humanity”[iii]
Malala
Yousafzai
What is it about this
“little girl” who does not bear arms (save for her pen, paper and voice) that
can threaten the sanity of the dreaded Taliban to the extent that they
attempted the madness of assassinating her but failed on 9 October 2012 for her
stance on girl child education in Pakistan? What is it about her will power
that has shamed those with fire power? What is it about her that has made the
entire world stand still?
Here’s what I think:
she has placed an immense value on herself. It is such value that is not
determined by the latest Blackberry, designer shoes and clothes, cars or
wristwatches and other toys in similar category (items that serve as the
measure of value for and of the average Nigerian young person) but by a clearly
defined purpose and passion driven by her service for humanity. Hear her:
“I have a new dream…I must be a politician (her father’s
suggestion though she wanted to be a doctor) to save this country. There are
so many crises in our country. I want to remove these crises”.[iv]
Malala
Yousafzai
Don’t get it twisted;
this is not the distant dream of a naïve 15 year old. This is not a dream she
hopes to wake up from in a future but one she has started living out
courageously in her present, in the face of daunting challenges and opposition
coming from no lesser group than the Taliban.
I dare say friend that
your life is as valuable as the things you pay attention to, the things that
make you feel good, important and relevant.
If
your attention is on the cheap designer items you surround yourself with, no
matter how much they cost (I call them cheap because in the end they are items
and are perishable and can’t stand the test of time) then your value is equally
as cheap.
I challenge you to rise
up like 15 year old Malala and be counted for and valued by your non perishable
service to humanity or in a more simplistic way, your neighbor. I challenge you
to live up to a cause worthwhile- even if it is not in as much scale as
Malala’s. Let your dreams which define who you are like Malala’s be such that
will inspire hope in the heart of a neighbor.
As Malala makes her way
to recovery in a hospital in England,
I urge you to make your way to recovery
from self centered and valueless purposes and dreams because it pays more to be like a farmer in exchange
than a farmer in subsistence.
Malala Yousafzai has
shown me that I can command the attention of the world by having the guts to
stand up for something worthwhile.
Don’t forget, she’s
just 15 years old…
Ye are the salt of the
earth: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot
of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be
hid. Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven.[v]
Matthew
5:13-14 & 16
Be inspired!
Remain motivated!
[i] www.quotegarden.com/conformity.html
Accessed on 12th November, 2012.
[ii] www.quotegarden.com/conformity.html
Accessed on 12th November, 2012.
[iii] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai
Accessed on 10th November 2012.
[iv] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai
Accessed on 10th November 2012.
[v]
The Christian Bible.
NB: For more on the experience of Malala
Yousafzai, just Google her name on the internet and you’ll find multiple links
you can check out.
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