THE HOG BY DAVID C NNAJIEMERE

The Hog

“The hog has been hungry for so long he can’t even remember for how long, it did in fact cost him his memory.  He didn’t care anymore about anything apart from not starving. Naturally , it became a very difficult and trying time for him, he would toil through the day and barely sleep at night from all the groaning of an empty stomach. Truthfully, Mr. Hog was neither wild nor domestic; so to fend for himself was a bit more challenging than it would have been if he belonged to one of these two distinct factions. One day, Fortune smiled on him and provided him with an opportunity…”

Opportunities in life distinguish men. It’s a door, it’s an edge, it’s an avenue, it’s a gift but above all it’s a blessing. 

To be more elaborate, opportunity is defined by the dictionary as; a chance for advancement, progress or profit, or a favorable circumstance or occasion. Note the key words in both definitions “chance” and “circumstance” so in other words, opportunity is not merited, it’s not as a result of clinical planning or hard work, it is sheer luck.

People believe opportunity can be predestined (i.e. a life introduced into this realm has a path laid out for it, on this path luck and opportunities are all present at some point), others are of the opinion that this luck set in a life’s path is as a result of the good deeds of such person (more like it’s a reward for an individual’s good act from a supreme being). 

You could believe either one of this or none at all, it’s of no matter, the constant in all this is that there exist chances in life that can turn a man’s life around in minutes, a happenchance that can change the course of a destiny for good truly.

…On that fateful day, Hog returning from yet another futile toil happen to come upon a road out of his now indifferent attitude to safety and precaution, “am still going to die after all“ he’d keep telling himself. To Hog’s normal thinking, that road if scrutinized well would expose him to predators and other dangers but this Hog was hungry, tired, and angry and certainly didn’t care. About halfway into that road he began to  smell food and this of course set out the emotions that is naturally visible in a hungry prey at the sight of food in a snare, he was aroused and scared at the same time, was someone actually hitting a drum or was it just  his heart pounding?  It could easily be a predator setting a good trap, nevertheless he was hooked and didn’t care and truthfully who would?

This chance can make a whole episode of mistakes perfect; it is a moment in many minutes of life that one would think back on and remember everything that happened no matter how long ago it was. 

We encounter these moments in little patches everyday of our life but then it is insignificant to us because our thought process paints life-changing opportunity as something that will come with a lot of convictions and fanfare ( though sometimes it does ) . 

Now the mystery behind these moments is that no matter how insignificant they are we always remember it when the final success have been achieved or noticeable height has been attained, it’s like tit-bits of a story we act out without a script but we keep the events unconsciously in our memory, we could at the end of the episode be able to sequence, analyze and report the story as if we ourselves wrote it. The seeds we sow in life moments may sometimes not turn out a fat and fast harvest, but the increase will surely remind you what seed brought forth what harvest.

Reaching out to people in need, seeing humans first as human before you consider race, tribe, religion or class, putting up a smile, simple voluntary works, standing up for others are seeds we can sow and it won’t be waste of energy. 

Imagine helping a stranded person out with as low as N200 so that they might be able to get to their destination , you will definitely forget it because the amount is small and you weren’t expecting anything in return from the person, this person will not forget this deed, maybe before you came along a lot of persons he met already snubbed him, not because they didn’t have or because he didn’t ask nicely but because it’s in man nature to not give as a first instinct, this person won’t forget  this and if anything makes  him recognize you or any of your family member tomorrow and he is in a position to help, he won’t have to think about it.

...the Hog tracked and located the source of the aroma, this led him into a store well secured but for an opening that can be easily overlooked but would allow a famished and hunger-thinned Hog such as this one an entrance. Inside he found…                    

To be continued.

David .C. Nnajiemere