Days that have felt like relentless nightmares are gradually beginning to transform into something more hopeful. It’s not merely because of our (myself and my younger brother) beautiful dreams and aspirations, but because we have found a new, better narrative to embrace.
My younger brother, who I could have referred to as a man in blessed memory today, is now alive and has fought his way back into light and continues to live purposefully.
After an incident where he ingested Garmalin 20, a poison that threatened to end his life, he was discovered quickly. His breath was shallow, and his pulse was fading.
My dad had gone to work; he was left with my mom, who couldn't help her anxiety; she, feeling anxious and helpless, kept calling people for help until she finally reached my dad, who then called our family nurse.
Before that, he had been given palm oil to drink. I’m not sure if that was a good first-aid measure, but it helped sustain him. What could have marked the end of his story instead became a pivotal moment for him.
After a week of recovery, as we sat together in our room, he opened up about the overwhelming struggles he faced. He had borrowed a substantial amount of money that was kept with him to trade in the foreign exchange market. He has always been dreaming of wealth, and he felt his only option to achieve it was by trading Forex with people's money. He helplessly watched five hundred thousand nairas slip through his fingers like sand during his trading endeavours.
But deep within me, I felt my brother could make that money back or find another way to earn it. I knew that was not enough reason to choose death over life. So, I asked, "Was that truly enough reason to choose death over life?"
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As he pondered my question, I could see a deeper exhaustion within him, one that went beyond financial loss. I recognized this feeling because I had recently gotten out of a similar dark void of despair.
With a voice laced with disbelief and desperation, he asked if life's purpose is merely to enable parents to raise children, secure their academic, moral, and spiritual growth, set new year goals, achieve them if they are achievable and amass material possessions before we quietly fade away. "Is there more to it?" At that moment, I knew we were in for a long conversation but I wasn't set for it.
As I sat in silence, my mind raced, each thought a cascade of reflections about the weight of his questions. I considered having him engage with the same materials I had read and listened to, which brought me clarity.
He spent two weeks reading and listening and later returned with a renewed sense of purpose.
The turning point came when he asked, "Why is this body of knowledge not found in public? Why are we left to spend most of our lives uninformed and fade away?"
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I responded,
- You may not have questioned enough.
- You may not have paid attention to what you ought to like reading foundational materials and lots more.
- Or perhaps you've been trapped in the cobweb of a fallen culture that has forged an average human into receiving only generic information that teaches mere survival instead of ownership.
Generic information isn't enough to clear away those cobwebs that life spread our way; the woven tapestry of dullness is intentionally crafted to keep you beneath. You must contend for liberation by clearing it away with an invigorative freshness in the quality of information that you give yourself.
In closing, I told him that now he knows how to set his new year goals; not with generic aspirations, but from a well-informed standpoint. I noticed what he had been writing over the last three weeks, and I encouraged him to think deeper.
My Dear friend who is a reader of this piece, the generic and contends for excellence in the coming year from a well-informed standpoint