By Isaac Iyiola Adeagbo
I remember one of late High Chief, Elemure Ogunyemi music. ARONIPIN ESONI MEYIN OLA O. As I woke up this morning, something cropped up in my mind.
There’s a profound wisdom embedded in the Yoruba saying. KOSENI TI OMO EHIN OLA. LITERALLY MEANS, NO ONE KNOWS TOMORROW. In Ekiti dialect, We say. ESONI MEYIN OLA.
In these few words lies one of life’s greatest lessons. Never use today’s circumstances to write the final chapter of a person’s story. Life is too unpredictable for such certainty.
The person you look down upon today may be the one whose HELP you will need tomorrow. The person whose voice you dismiss today may one day speak on a matter that affects your life’s destiny. The person you consider insignificant because he or she has little to offer you now may eventually become the bridge to something you desperately need. Yet, when fortune smiles upon some people, something subtle sometimes happens. Some people measure relationships with usefulness.
They look at another person and ask. What do I need from him? Or What can he do for me? If the answer is. NOTHING.
RESPECT DISAPPEARS. Your calls are no longer returned, greetings are ignored, relationships are abandoned, a person who once mattered is now treated as though he has suddenly lost his values.
BUT THAT’S WHERE THE WISDOM OF LIFE BECOMES UNCOMFORTABLE. YOU MAY KNOW SOMEONE’S CONDITION TODAY. BUT YOU DON’T KNOW THEIR DESTINATION.
FORTUNE HAS NO PERMANENT ADDRESS. THE WEALTHY CAN BECOME POORER, THE UNKNOWN CAN BECOME CELEBRATED. THE UNEMPLOYED CAN BECOME AN EMPLOYER. THE OBSCURE CAN BECOME INFLUENTIAL.
THE PERSON SEEKING ASSISTANCE TODAY MAY ONE DAY BECOME A PERSON CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR OTHERS. Sometimes, however, the transformation is not even material. A PERSON WHO APPEARS ORDINARILY TO POSSESS NOTHING, MAY HAVE WISDOM, CHARACTER, KNOWLEDGE, LOYALTY, GOODWILL OR HUMAN CONNECTIONS THAT MONEY CANNOT BUY. MANY PEOPLE ARE RICH IN POSSESSIONS BUT POOR IN HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS, WHILE SOME PEOPLE POSSESS LITTLE MATERIALLY BUT HAVE ACCUMULATED SOMETHING far MORE ENDURING. THE GOODWILL OF PEOPLE THEY ONCE TOUCHED THEIR LIVES. PATHETICALLY, SOME PEOPLE ONLY DISCOVER THE VALUES OF OTHERS AFTER THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE CHANGED. BY THEN, THE PERSON’S THEY IGNORED MIGHT HAVE MOVED ON. THE DOOR THEY ONCE SLAMMED MAY NOT LONGER BE OPEN FOR THEM.
The relationship they considered unnecessary may have become irretrievable, and the person they thought they would never need may become precisely the person they wish they had treated differently. THIS’S WHY HUMILITY IS NOT MERELY A MORAL VIRTUE; IT’S PRACTICAL WISDOM.
NOBODY KNOWS WHERE LIFE IS TAKING ANYBODY TO. A seed buried in the soil does not look like a tree. A child does not resemble the adult he will become, and a small beginning does not announce the magnitude of its ending. If we judged everything by appearance, we would misjudge almost everything. Think of the butterfly. Before becoming what it was meant to be, it spends a period of metamorphosis, hidden inside a cocoon. To an impatient observer, nothing appears to be happening, yet transformation does not require an audience. Human beings are often like that.
SOMEONE MAY BE STRUGGLING TODAY, LEARNING TODAY, FAILING TODAY AND STARTING AGAIN TODAY. WHAT YOU SEE MAY BE A CHAPTER, NOT THE FINAL CONCLUSION. IT’S THEREFORE DANGEROUS TO LAUGH AT SOMEONE IN SEASON. YOU MAY BE LOOKING AT WINTER AND ASSUMING THERE WILL NEVER BE SPRING, BUT SEASONS DO NOT HUMANS OPINIONS BEFORE THEY CHANGE.
Life has a remarkable way of rearranging positions. The person at the top today may discover tomorrow that the ladder has moved, while the person at the bottom may discover a staircase nobody else could see, and when positions change, character becomes the only reliable currency.
This is why the way we treat people matters most when we believe we have nothing to gain from them. Be courteous to the person who cannot help you. Respect the person who has no influence. Acknowledge the person whose circumstances are less fortunate than yours. Do not humiliate people simply because you have the advantage today.
One of life’s most dangerous illusions is the belief that because we do not need someone now, we will never need them. Nobody knows tomorrow, and nobody knows which conversation will become important.
NOBODY KNOWS THE RELATIONSHIP THAT WILL BECOME MEANINGFUL, AND NOBODY KNOWS WHICH SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT ENCOUNTERS WILL ALTER THE COURSE OF A LIFE JOURNEY.
Aside from this, there is an even deeper lesson here. We should STOP TREATING people well merely because we may need them someday. IT MAKES KINDNESS TRANSACTIONAL. IF WE ONLY RESPECT THE POWERFUL. OUR RESPECT IS NOT CHARACTER; ITS A CALCULATION. IF WE’RE KIND ONLY TO THOSE WHO CAN PAY US IN RETURN. THEN OUR KINDNESS IS NOT GENEROSITY. IT’S AN INVESTMENT.
TRUE CHARACTER IS REVEALED IN HOW WE TREAT THOSE WHO WE HAVE NOTHING TO GAIN FROM THEM. THAT’S HOW HUMANITY IS TESTED.
The world is full of people who were once ignored and later became indispensable. But the greater lesson is simply that today’s INSIGNIFICANT PERSON MAY BECOME TOMORROW’S IMPORTANT PERSON, THAT’S WHY EVERY HUMAN BEING DESERVES DIGNITY, regardless of what tomorrow makes of them.
WHEN FORTUNE SMILES UPON YOU, SMILE WITH HUMILITY. WHEN DOORS OPEN FOR YOU, REMEMBER THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WAITING OUTSIDE.
WHEN YOU become INFLUENTIAL. DO NOT BECOME INACCESSIBLE. WHEN YOU HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH, DO NOT MAKE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE LESS FEEL WORTHLESS, AND WHEN SOMEBODY IS STRUGGLING, DO NOT MAKE JEST OF HIM. REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE AT A MOMENT, NOT NECESSARILY A DESTINY. ABOVE ALL, NEVER BECOME TOO COMFORTABLE IN YOUR POSITION AND BELIEVE THAT YOU KNOW AND UNDERSTOOD THE FUTURE. You DONT KNOW. AND NEITHER DO I. NONE OF US KNOW TOMORROW.
The end of life’s journey is hidden from all of us. Be careful how you speak to people. BE CAREFUL WHOM YOU DISMISS AS IRRELEVANT. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU BLACKMAIL, DESTROY BEHIND THEIR BACK, RIDICULE AND SMILES AT HIS FACE. Be careful whom you treat as though they do not matter. Life has a strange sense of humour, and sometimes it changes the circumstances of two people so completely that YESTERDAY’S SUPERIOR BECOMES TOMORROW’S SEEKER, AND YESTERDAY’S SEEKER BECOMES TOMORROW’S BENEFACTOR. But even beyond that possibility lies a more profound truth: we DON’T need tomorrow to teach us how to respect OTHERS today.
The wise person does not ask only. What can this person do for me?The wiser question is: WHATS MY ATTITUDE TO THE LESSER MOTALS? OR HOW DO I TREAT PEOPLE WHO CANNOT DO ANYTHING FOR ME? That’s the question worth carrying through life, for wealth will fluctuate, positions will change, influence will rise and wane off, beauty will fade, opportunities will come and go, but character travels with us through every season.
So, while you are up. Do not mock those who are down. While you are comfortable, do not despise those who are struggling. While you’re celebrated, do not humiliate those whose names nobody knows, and while fortune is smiling on you, remember that fortune has no permanent address. Tomorrow is still unwritten. The person you overlook today may surprise you. The person you honour today may never be able to repay you, but that’s not the point. The point is that life is uncertain, and humanity should never be conditional.
No one knows the end. And no one knows whose story is still unfolding. No one knows what tomorrow has hidden behind its curtain. Therefore, walk through life with honesty and humility. Leave kindness wherever you go. Never make another person’s present condition the measure of their worth, and never allow today’s advantage make you forget that tomorrow belongs to no one. ESONI MEYIN OLA. We know where we are today, but we do not know where life is placing us tomorrow, and perhaps that uncertainty is one of life’s greatest teachers. Treat people well, not because you may need them someday, but because someday, you may discover that the true measure of your life was never what you possessed, but how you treated people while you possessed it.
So to the ones who are altruistic, humble, kind, compassionate, without expecting anything in return. I will say. Continue to be who you are, for there’s life after life. I come in peace.