I am currently reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 'The thing around your neck' and boy, oh boy this woman is something else. Her story writing skills are totally outstanding and so captivating.
Anyway so the first story I read is 'Cell': about this young man who takes to thieving but whose mother constantly shields him from taking responsibility for his actions. Even when he ends up behind bars albeit for something different, his Mummy is still there to shield him.
It got me thinking though, at how often people think they're protecting you from the world by not confronting your bad habits. i mean, for something like theft, what is there to think about? It would hurt to confront it but it must be done for the sake of the person's betterment.
You cannot claim to love anyone too much to tell them the truth! That is very selfish and doesn't quite qualify as love because love will correct you hoping to make you a better person.
In the story, every time this young man was involved in one of those incidents it was obvious to his family that he had done it. However, there wasn't any obvious step made towards confronting the matter at hand. Instead, silence followed the incident and everyone expected it to go away as a result. But it never does go away though, does it?
When people that we love do things that they shouldn't be doing- read infringing on other people's freedoms or being disrespectful of people's property, we ought to speak up. Not behind their backs but directly to their faces. We need to give them a chance to choose to change because the habit developed is unbecoming as compared to being like the ostrich that believes covering it's head in the sand protects it from danger!
Love is truth! Love people enough to tell them the truth because many times, their life actually depends on it!
Anyway so the first story I read is 'Cell': about this young man who takes to thieving but whose mother constantly shields him from taking responsibility for his actions. Even when he ends up behind bars albeit for something different, his Mummy is still there to shield him.
It got me thinking though, at how often people think they're protecting you from the world by not confronting your bad habits. i mean, for something like theft, what is there to think about? It would hurt to confront it but it must be done for the sake of the person's betterment.
You cannot claim to love anyone too much to tell them the truth! That is very selfish and doesn't quite qualify as love because love will correct you hoping to make you a better person.
In the story, every time this young man was involved in one of those incidents it was obvious to his family that he had done it. However, there wasn't any obvious step made towards confronting the matter at hand. Instead, silence followed the incident and everyone expected it to go away as a result. But it never does go away though, does it?
When people that we love do things that they shouldn't be doing- read infringing on other people's freedoms or being disrespectful of people's property, we ought to speak up. Not behind their backs but directly to their faces. We need to give them a chance to choose to change because the habit developed is unbecoming as compared to being like the ostrich that believes covering it's head in the sand protects it from danger!
Love is truth! Love people enough to tell them the truth because many times, their life actually depends on it!
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