I shall start with the wise words of Kof Awoonor, “The firewood of this world is for only those who can take heart, that is why not all can gather it.” The life race is not for the faint-hearted nor the feeble-minded, neither is it a jolly ride. The constant recipe for success has always had perseverance, diligence, and persistence as a major component. It makes more sense than “if you must enjoy the warmth of the fire in winter, then you must be ready to gather the woods in summer”.
As funny as it may sound, I learned this from my encounter with a tortoise back in my senior secondary school days. A friend caught a tortoise, which we kept confined until the Saturday of that week. We were charmed by the African tales of its craftiness and cunningness that we decided to engage the tortoise in a game of wit, the prize being its freedom. We placed it on the ground, in an open field with short grasses around, invested our watchman gaze at the possible magic it will perform to evade the surveillance of about four watchers. The tortoise knew it was at a disadvantage but was ready to take its chances. To think of it now, what does it have to lose? It was a moment of “do it and be damned, don’t do it and still be damned”.
The tortoise began to move in a manner we least conceived, as if derailed and confused, for the first few minutes, it moved in a disorderly manner, almost in a cyclical fashion, leaving prints everywhere and coming back to the very same point. This foolish movement of the tortoise continued for a while under our watch until we suddenly noticed its disappearance with no particular print to trace or clue on when and where it disappeared.
Did it magically disappear? No, it did not.
Were we still on our watchman duty when it disappeared? Yes, we were.
Did we give up on its possible escape, thereby relaxed our surveillance? Yes, we did.
Did we know where or how it disappeared? No, we did not.
The tortoise proved itself smart and it beat us in our own game, right under our watch. It stood faithful to its quest of freedom, starting it course with what we termed “foolish” by making the same pattern of movement over and over again until we lost guard, got distracted and diverted focus to other things while still on guard, we impliedly gave up on the possibility of its seemingly impossible task. Persistence and perseverance got the tortoise its desired freedom while distraction and loss of focus denied us victory in our own game.
Most people gave up too early on self and their dreams, while some are even too scared to start, either because others gave up on them or because the odds and circumstances are against them. Most times, we magnify the perceived obstacles, and play safe, forgetting that it is not about the losses and failed attempts at the beginning of the race but the victorious end that lies ahead
Jim Watkin once said “a river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” Dare the odds keep pushing, it may appear foolish, frustrating and futile at first, but that is the recipe to making indelible prints.
How and when the tortoise escaped is a question that will forever be void of answers. The number of times it had to repeat its patterned movement with no particular print as leads is a fact we never averred our minds to, just that it was consistent on its chosen quest. The irrefutable conclusion is that the tortoise did escape our watch, it stayed true to its legendary identity of being crafty and smart. Thank you.
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