My problem with the today-dislocated world
is that my admirable grandparents
who brought me up ?in the 70s to 80s
and the members of the enlarged Nze Onwumere family
taught me to be simpler with the things of life,
saying that good name is greater than ill-gotten wealth,
saying that I should uphold value and virtue
for the sake of the family?s name.
I was told that a man who is not contented
and aspires to achieve more in not-unique ways
is a fool to fortune.
I?m spending a lifetime holding onto these no-less precepts,
other than it seems that many people who have crossed my way
were not brought up in this direction, hence it is impossible for me
to accept and interpret the people and the world of today.
They tell me to let go those precepts of my grandparents
and the members of the enlarged Nze Onwumere family,
saying that they belong to the Homer.
They tell me that one thing that remains permanent is change.
I do not comprehend what they mean by ?change?,
if they mean that I should eschew these values and virtues
for a place of wrong and prejudice.
Unlike the precepts of my grandparents
and the members of the enlarged Nze Onwumere family,
this world has erroneously plunged self
into depression, desire for evil at will, ego,
fake, falsehood, fame-and-fortune…
Many people do not care to know their future,
but their fortune.
They see this as the greatest life motivator,
and not values and virtues, which I was taught
are greater than this stupidity of many normal people
that has become the occupation of the world.
– Odimegwu Onwumere, a Poet/Writer, writes from Rivers State.
Tel: +2348057778358
Email: [email protected]
www.odimegwuonwumere.
