tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35409118730948952952024-03-18T03:02:23.743+00:00Akin AkintayoEssentially similar to what is known, compatible to what is expected and related to the unexpected...Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.comBlogger4046125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-53549625714947673102024-03-16T23:35:00.001+00:002024-03-17T05:50:45.581+00:00Thought Picnic: The spirit of living<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In spirit of spirit</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Spirit, beyond the
being that we essentially are is that force of life that creates the situations
and pathways that become the testimonies of gratitude and thankfulness we get
to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Enlivening spirit is
the power and vision of hope, I saw it on the day that I received news of a
condition that devastated the community to which I belong over 21 years ago,
for against the stark contrast of foreboding and the mountain of impossibility
that loomed in the foreground, I saw the light of dawn that said the story was
not ending with the news I had just heard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The spirit of
revelation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The knowledge I have
gained and the way I find myself reviewing that quantum of legacy in the face
of new experiences is such that I am grateful that opening my mind to new
perspectives brings new learning, insight, and wisdom to
engender change.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">One big lesson I have
learnt is not to sit in the cocoon of a revelation for too long, every
revelation belongs to an instant and a time frame, and it may not outlive its usefulness,
but between the immutable that governs our faith and the changing that is the
witness of our lives, a new light would always need to be shone on a situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When light is
incidental on a prism, the beauty of the light is only realised in movement,
the movement of the prism and the changing of your viewpoint and perspective,
the light, the source of knowledge and inspiration remaining the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
revelations that gave me calmness in another period of adversity did not give me peace
when brought to bear in other circumstances. Meditation has to be continuous as
revelation needs to be renewed refuelling us for another journey in life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The spirit of living<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Coming back to
spirit, it is no pleasure going through any period of adversity, difficulty, or
incapacity, you almost feel that the world is closing in on you. Then
sometimes, you must close yourself to the world around you and settle in
the darkness and dampness of the soil in which you have been buried as seed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A seed in the soil,
watered by revelation and warmed by hope, sets in motion the cycle of life, new
life, the sprouting of growth and the promise of a harvest in due time. I
wonder at the spirit of life that sustains the health of our mortal being, the hopes we have, and the revelations that let us dare to dream, and then believe that those dreams
can come true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I marvel at the
spirit of joy that lifts us above everything that deigns to hold us back and
feigns at domineering us when we are more usually clueless about who we are and
why we exist to reign and overcome. I am a spirit, I have the Spirit in me, and my
spirit is triumphant as I find my place by the grace given to me to live and
hide in God who is spirit and whom I seek to worship in spirit and in truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-9469938718874130052024-03-14T15:20:00.002+00:002024-03-14T22:20:25.451+00:00Thinking of the wisdom of crowds<p><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lifted from the doorman’s view</span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">It may now be the stuff of legend, but I cannot find the story
I read some time ago about how lifts or elevators came to be built on the
outside of buildings. Apparently, a prominent hotel planned to close for a
long time to install elevators that required punching holes through existing
floors, the construction debris rendering the hotel uninhabitable for the duration of the
project.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">The architects had their plans up and things were ready to go, which
would have put the hotel staff out of work for months. One of the doormen heard
of these plans and somewhat quipped about why they had to close the hotel and whether it was not possible to consider building the lift on the
outside, thereby keeping most of the hotel business open for the duration of
the said project.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">From hearing to using<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Someone who could influence things heard this suggestion and got the
architects and designers to work on this idea which as the doorman suggested
was a better way to keep the hotel going while the new lift was being
installed. After the completion of the project, the outdoor lift became a draw for the clientele and the public alike.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">The wisdom of crowds in a broader sense is not so much about the
multitude of ideas that come in when a situation or problem is posed, but the
ability to sift through the many viewpoints to see what is viable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some organisations get advantages out of this more than others in
knowing how to pose the problem, managing the scope of those who can bring new
perspectives and having the means to assess the viability through discovery,
determination, development, design, deployment, and delightful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">The struggle toward delight<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Delightful suggests that the outcome is beneficial, enjoyable,
profitable, working, and could be improved upon with the knowledge and experience
gained, and inspire to do other things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then again, the wisdom of crowds when not looked at pejoratively would
mean one is open to new ideas by finding sources of new perspectives especially
from those not steeped in the profession or expertise, in what might be both a
new pair of eyes and ears brought into the conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">You have to wonder if you are afraid to see things differently and that your
premises are challenged to the extent that you are persuaded to adopt a
different stance or modify a concept to accommodate variance you had not
heretofore considered. I think it is a healthy thing and where you find the
opportunity to be involved in such a situation, engage it, embrace it, and
learn from it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">Postscript</span></span></b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;">: There are books and
further academic and research work on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_the_crowd">The Wisdom of the Crowd</a>,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum">fallacies</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding">crowdfunding</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink">groupthink</a> and so on, this
blog is just a general viewpoint on some activity I was recently involved in.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-42100340226201964892024-03-12T23:36:00.002+00:002024-03-12T23:44:22.004+00:00Thought Picnic: As humans, we all do fail and fall<p><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In life and its
passing</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Life is a series, a
series of stories that includes the living and dying, the alive and dead, the
enjoying and the suffering, all of which become the mix of humanity that
sometimes we seem to forget that what we see and go through is not the only or
most significant issue in the broader context of the communities with which we
exist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had a call as the
weekend closed out that a mutual acquaintance slightly older than us had passed
on. It was sad news and it also brought to our memories an event that is
definitive and seminal to how we all viewed each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We all sometimes fall<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then, in our youth,
he could exercise disgust and revulsion with sententious persuasion to demand
stringent adjustments under the threat of exposure and banishment. I became the
villain of the situation that involved passions that were attended to rather
than worked against.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We went our separate
ways, the picture in my mind of him captured in celluloid of that time, any
updates coming through other conversations with my friend who kept contact all
through, as they were classmates and to a degree, friends of a sort.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Later in life as we
got established in our professions and careers, he met with challenging
integrity issues wherein he was found wanting. We heard rumours but were
unaware of the details until an Internet search revealed more than we expected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For weakness and
strength<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We had a secret about
him just as he had a secret about us, but we were not into trading these
secrets to besmirch or adjure, nor did we think of standing in judgement. What
we learnt from that discovery was we are all fallible, to a lesser or greater
extent, we might face a different range of consequences from just personal
conviction to judicial conviction. We having endured the guilt and shame of the
former.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whether that secret
died with him or was shared with someone, we cannot tell. Not that we are afraid
that a revelation might lead to the loss of face even as amid our regret and sorrow
at his demise, the lesser of our better nature might have felt relief at one
less person with a secret.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another Internet
search gave us a bit more background to the man as we reminisced about the good,
the abilities, the successes, and the life of the man. For how we have been impacted
and influenced by the many we encounter, we can be grateful for having others
share in our stories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">May his gentle soul
rest in peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-90331030061399960962024-03-10T22:32:00.004+00:002024-03-11T10:16:53.395+00:00A Traditional Mothering Sunday<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And off to church, I
go<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Being on the steward’s
rota today, I left for church early having checked if the weather, though cold, would also be affected by rain. The prognosticators and readers of the tea leaves had surmised that the times to expect rain would coincide with when I
was fully sheltered at church, however, it being Manchester, you should always
be prepared.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As I walked to church,
I took the opportunity to conduct a video conversation with Brian and we
pleasantly bantered until I was about to step through the south door main
entrance to the cathedral.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It being Mothering
Sunday and I have much of an affinity to the traditional than the emerging
trend of Mother’s Day, it was one or the other part, I needed to fulfil.
Essentially, Mothering Sunday is the Sunday you go to worship in the church
wherein you were baptised, failing which you make a beeline to attend the cathedral
or mother church of the diocese.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The baptisms of note<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Now, I was first
baptised the Anglican way with the sprinkling of water at a baptismal font just
3 weeks short of 49 years ago at St. Luke’s (Anglican) Church in Jos. Suffice
it to say, that is a long way from here and quite a distant past in my memory,
I was just over 8 years old and it was an activity initiated by my parents than
one I understood the significance of. Apart from the certificate of baptism
preserved and intact from that long ago, I recall nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">12 years later, there
was a river, and I was among charismatic Christians. Then I had a better
understanding of what the purpose of a baptism was apart from being fully
persuaded of the significance of it. I was fully immersed in water as I pinched
my nose, then pulled up out of the water in a symbolic demonstration of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%206:4">Romans 6:4</a> “<i>Therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.</i>”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Whilst the new birth
is instantaneous in terms of whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%2010:13">Romans
10:13</a>, the realisation of walking in the newness of life is a process of
learning, failing, relearning, appreciating human frailty and the preponderance
of grace, along with jettisoning the bondage to the law through moving from
works to receiving and accepting the free gift of life-affirming grace. It has
been harder for me than the words seem to state, the mercifulness and
lovingkindness of God assures me, it is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the second
instance of my baptism without contemning the purpose of the first, we had a gathering
of believers without a building in the traditional sense of a church as we are
in school. Unlike in the Anglican Communion or the Established Church,
Mothering Sunday in terms of revisiting a church where one was baptised is
impossible. It was contemporaneously attached to time, manner, and place, the
rest is recalled from memory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On duty and then
discussion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Welcoming worshippers
into the cathedral, I handed out the service pamphlets before taking my seat at
the start of the processional hymn and then at the offertory hymn, I took up my
assigned aisle to take the collection. Later, I ushered the congregants to receive
the communion and my duties were completed after I helped an old lady who had
some issues with tickets, she thought she had purchased, but could not find
evidence of the transaction being completed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The weekly Lenten
talks started soon after the social gathering to have tea and coffee
with biscuits. The gathering allows us to meet people we
know and new attendees with all the general conversation that ensues.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">We are using the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2024, titled <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tarry-Awhile-Spirituality-Archbishop-Canterburys/dp/0281090106">Tarry
Awhile</a> by Dr Selina Stone which comes in book, Kindle (electronic book),
and Audible (audio book) format. It is a study of black spirituality that
inspires quite engaging conversation and discussion in the Lenten talks group.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I have read and
listened to some challenging and insightful bits of perspective and theological
discourse that I cannot adequately cover in this blog. If you can get the book,
you will be mightily blessed by what you learn in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Village Church<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Getting home, I did
not have more than 90 minutes to spare before heading out for the bimonthly Village
Church around the corner from mine that takes place on the second and fourth
Sunday of the month. Even though I felt like I should get on my bed and snuggle
under my duvet, this community service that attends to the spiritual needs of
the LGBTQ++ cohort under the auspices of the Church of England and supported by
our bishops is a wonderfully enriching experience with an intimate feel that
allows me the participation in the Holy Communion, twice on Sunday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">If anything, it is
better recognised by the church that has in the past persecuted and castigated
minority groups that Jesus Christ died for all and the purpose of the church is
to give everyone access and facility to exercise their Christianity and spirituality
without condemnation or judgement, and in particular, those that had before
been hurt by traditions, denominations, churches, or the modern-day equivalent
of the Pharisaic class.</span> </p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-46397537952265498742024-03-08T23:04:00.005+00:002024-03-08T23:04:27.009+00:00Coronavirus streets in Manchester - LXXIII<p><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The pandemic’s long
tail</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The latest figures as
of yesterday in the UK, we have 3,927 active cases of COVID-19 infections, this
would suggest that someone is laid low, for them, the looming spectre of the
pandemic is a grim reality that many seem to have forgotten because it is
apparently out of mind and out of sight. [<a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/">Worldometers:
United Kingdom</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is however without
dispute that the world has changed perceptively in some cases or otherwise. I
barely see anyone donning a mask, but the absence of someone I regularly see at
some meeting place almost always suggests they have taken ill rather than having
taken a holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There have been no
notifications for a vaccine booster yet as those who are immunosuppressed would
be informed of the prospect for them to prepare. What I started during the
pandemic and led to my discovery of Manchester was walking, and walking helps
with a unique observation and perspective of my beautiful city, the people, the
buildings, the events, and the changes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The dangers with
bicycles<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Electric bicycles
remain an enduring menace of lawlessness, the riders who no longer need to
exert any physical energy in peddling their bicycles are totally oblivious to road
traffic rules, and they run through red lights as if they do not exist. If they are
not weaving through pedestrians whose precarious existence is exacerbated by
being anywhere outside their homes, they would be run through at risk of life
or limb.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was leapfrogging
over a bicycle left lying on the pavement as the rider went in for a KFC,
later, it was someone who forgot to activate his phone’s camera to keep an eye
on the path before him as he interacted with his phone with carefree abandon
and just inches of bumping into another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Working on a hybrid
high<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I suspect anyone
putting out a job advertisement with the strict requirement of working in the
office where the work can be done remotely is on a losing streak, they would
get fleeting interest. The worst you can offer is a hybrid working scenario,
and whilst we cannot expect to work from home permanently, the flexibility and the
ability to negotiate those terms must be available or your vacancy would remain
vacant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The buildings, we
have a construction site everywhere and cranes not of the avian type towering
around the city lit up with colours just to prevent cranes from flying into
them at night or we, the slightly taller people from hitting our heads when
stumbling out of nightclubs totally inebriated that our minds are rivalling
kites for height.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Milking us for every
penny<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the completed
buildings the shops that were a longer walk away are now at my doorsteps, the
Starbucks that disappeared almost two years ago has now halved its distance
from my door. I stopped shopping at Tesco when one of their managers installed
anti-homeless spikes outside one of their stores in London. I guess all is
forgiven now that it is too inconvenient to ignore the closeness of the new
store, the distance is not enough to attract a charge of outraging public
decency, if I left home with just a towel wrapped around my head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Imagine not having to
walk 3 kilometres for a small tub of taramasalata, though I won’t be spending
an extra 30p on milk that goes for less at my local Sainsbury’s. Between online
shopping through Amazon for Iceland produce, Aldi competes favourably on
price for most of my needs, and Marks & Spencer when slightly indulgent,
then Spar for just the comfort of a sweet tooth, what I need is an automated
shopping trolley with the instincts and intelligence of a dog that respects
voice commands, throw in robotic arms and it might well go and do the shopping
while I occupy myself missing the life and wonder of my city. Probably a bad
idea, except if it would bring those lawless bicycles to heel on our somewhat
dangerous streets.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-70527206975468764592024-03-08T15:24:00.005+00:002024-03-08T15:24:41.762+00:00Thought Picnic: Between writing and speaking<p><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Effective and polite
conversation</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The art of
communication and more so the one of being effective at it matters a lot. Even
for those of us schooled in the old-fashioned use of language in courtesy,
respect, grammar, and correct address, we must not be tempted to dispose of it
for the sheer ease and modernity that attends to current trends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whether it be
letters, emails, or text messages, I follow some basic and critical rules. The
form of address along with a greeting is essential. The statement and context are
written with a style that respects both the correct use of grammar and punctuation,
whichever language I choose to write in. The closing is properly made too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Chains of email angst<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In a recent series of
back-and-forth emails where nothing seemed to be moving, we had generated an
enviable email chain that would tire out a casual observer just as some frustration
began to set in. I suggested we seek a resolution by telephone conversation to
understand where the apparent miscommunication or misunderstanding was because
we were getting no further along.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My feeling is that
this suggestion prompted my interlocutor to review their workflows and
processes after which certain ameliorations were made without conceding the
fact that the issue was always on their side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Suddenly, the shunted
wagon of bureaucracy lethargic woke up in a fit of uncharacteristic vigour,
trundling forward towards the realisation of intended or expected outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Words to any effect<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One would not want to
apportion blame as much as the admission of fault should not suggest a loss of
face. Though the facility to admit wrong with the finery of language is hardly taught
and acquired without extensive reading, especially of the classics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I get commended for
having a way with words and that my writing conveys my views better than my
speech. At my most cantankerous I am neither eloquent nor articulate, and enunciation
is good enough, I hope. Yet, where you have no opportunity to write, what you
say and how you say it is the only device by which any listener might give due
recognition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-66989545903495593772024-03-08T12:28:00.008+00:002024-03-08T12:30:04.334+00:00Show me, seen it<p style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A dual of a duel</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What kind of conversation can one be
having when certain questions are asked? One can imagine the duels of gentlemen
from the past, but then each had a gun to hand to settle the matter. One needs
to look at the brigandage of Westerns to appreciate it better.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">One cowboy shows their hip with their gun
holstered as the other prepares, and he is the fastest on the draw that
probably lives to tell the tale. It is a quest to the death rather than
initiating an opportunity for pleasure.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Obviously, there is a situation that has
arisen from Internet chat in the last few decades and more recently dating
apps, in which certain rather private elements of anatomy are shared for
excitement, titillation, or revulsion, depending on your preference. The negotiation,
which we must not suffer the detail of, can be interesting but much more should
be left to the imagination than exploiting everything that nothing is left to
discover.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Keeping treasures sacred<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It is the shock of noticing something that
you were presented with a quandary, in many cases, I have been forward to
advise fellowmen to blow their noses, a colloquialism for doing up their
trouser zippers, but where someone for their natural gifts wearing shorts has a
wardrobe malfunction revealing much more than is expected, that presents a
difficulty.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I guess that question is something along
the lines of show me yours, but then before your thinking runs away into the
abyss of impolite discourse, let’s just say you bought a bracelet that I also
found myself prospecting for. Indeed, my inquiry might well be, show me yours
and I will show you mine. You have to believe the innocence of this engagement;
it is all I ask for.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-43601849055792272102024-03-06T12:10:00.001+00:002024-03-08T12:34:33.505+00:00With Such Ruthless Efficiency?<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Travelling
by nature’s gift</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One beautiful afternoon walking up Boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris, I noticed on both sides of this broad arterial route were shops purveying a wide
variety of hair products catering to the African woman. More notably, were the
hair extensions that I was made to believe came from the indigenous peoples of
Brazil and India.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
exploitation of this resource and the middlemen that make money from this trade
would be a study of world economies and how sources of extraction rarely
benefit fully from the market of the produce or products.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
other unusual insight I gained from my observation was the way these indigenous
people whose world is limited in its locality have inadvertently travelled the
world with their gifts of beautifying customers in Paris, London, Lagos, or any
other metropolis where the augmentation of natural hair demands these accoutrements.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2016/02/paris-boulevard-de-lunpretty.html">Paris:
Boulevard de l'Unpretty</a></span></i><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (February 2016)</span></i><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2018/08/paris-boulevard-de-lunpretty-revisited.html">Paris:
Boulevard de l'Unpretty - Revisited.</a></span></i><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (August 2018)</span></i><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Readers
around the globe<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
have had a blog for over 20 years, it started in Germany, I set up the domain
in the Netherlands and I reside in the UK. I have posted from many locations
and have been completely unaware of the reach of my blog in terms of
readership apart from ballpark numbers of readers, locations, search terms,
browsers used and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For
instance, looking at the statistics on my blog, I cannot account for why there
is any interest in my blog from Iran or Cambodia and these are in the top 10 countries with readers from Nigeria coming behind these two countries in the
last week. The fact is my blog is travelling to places I could never have
imagined, garnering interest that I cannot explain, yet it somewhat engenders
something relatable that is not done for engagement, influence, or monetary
gain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They
happened upon my blog<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Such
is the experience I had yesterday when a renowned personality requested access
to my résumé which I granted even as I pondered why ever they would make such a
request. The follow on was the receipt of an email commending my blog and the
work I had put into it for over two decades. They also referred to the fact
that my career path which is totally at variance with my journaling and blog
deserves deep respect and honour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Apparently,
I have maintained this blog with <i>ruthless efficiency</i> (their words), I
only wish I had, as it is the kind of praise that comes to your hearing, and
you find yourself looking around expecting it to have been directed at someone
else rather than yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My
partner and my best friend have already started pointing fingers, “<i>I told
you so</i>” said one, “<i>You do not listen</i>” intoned the other. When does self-deprecation
morph into self-depreciation? You question your instincts as modesty remains
the better virtue to self-promotion. Indeed, I do little to promote my blog,
most of the traffic is organic. I have also kept intrusive and cluttering advertisements
off it because it is not a commercial venture, nor do I intend it to evolve in
that direction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If
like the hair extensions, I am like an indigenous woman who profits little
apart from the knowledge that my hair, of which primarily I have none, adorns
the heads of sophisticated women around the world, even for the praise and
acknowledgement I have received, I would be both fulfilled and grateful. My
blog is made up of many stories and I hope each day brings inspiration for
another story. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-8129994698455624372024-03-01T15:54:00.004+00:002024-03-08T12:35:02.749+00:00We March<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Going forward with nature</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">March always seems to present the
month of beginnings when the signs of spring begin to show in nature and the
days for the northern hemisphere begin earlier as the winter recedes into its
seasonal twilight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Then suddenly there could be a chilly
blast with Siberia huffing and puffing over Europe with the vehemence of
needing to tell us that she still exists. One year, I was in Berlin, and it
was in the third week of April, it snowed. Gosh! It was depressing, as I got
back home to Amsterdam, I booked a holiday to the Canary Islands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Looking toward the warmth<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">March indeed has a spring to it, like
we are about to march into something, a battle, an adventure, an experience, or
all that together. We awaken from the slumber of Yuletide, and after the
perceptively longest month of January, February grants a reprieve of love
closely followed by the privations of Lent, a season of penitence and
reflection is in full flow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">This year, everything is happening in
March, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, in two Sundays, it is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothering_Sunday">Mothering Sunday</a> that
has become commercialised and confused with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day">Mother’s Day</a>. We are
also springing forward with the clocks on the last Sunday which is the last day
of the month and Easter Sunday, what a time to be alive, like everything is in
alignment in a leap year. British Summer Time begins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Marching onward in triumph<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Yet, we march on, full of hope and
expectation, amazed by the beauty that gets revealed, the smells that hit
our olfactory organs, and the singing of the birds chirping away giving our
eardrums a new sensation that lifts the spirits with warmth and appreciation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In each of us, we find a blessing if
we dare to live and thrive, the newness in every morning signalling the God of
the universe has us in His embrace, our mouths filled with testimonies for
which words cannot be found except by some Pentecostal utterance because we
have been overwhelmed with goodness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">Knowing that God is not against us but
on our side always and fighting for us means that this march is a triumphal
one. Let us all the noise we can as we joyfully celebrate this gift of life,
grace, and victory.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-78265203536726482252024-02-29T21:12:00.001+00:002024-03-08T12:35:30.335+00:00On my fifteenth Leap Day<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Of fathers on the record</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Two men I celebrate in my
acknowledgement of the significance of today, Joel Adebambo Idowu, my maternal
grandfather who passed on in May 1961 and Josiah Olubadejo Akintayo, my father,
who at a sprightly 84 years old, potters around with energy and wisdom in our hometown,
Ìjẹ̀shà Ìjèbú, in Ogun State.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They were both archivists journalling
the histories and genealogies of our little town which bears the historical
name of Òdo Àyányẹlú and is significant in the Ijebuland monarchy as well as
the animist Agẹmọ cult that represents the 16 masquerades or priests in the August
festivals at the palace of the Awùjalẹ̀ of Ìjèbú Òde.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2013/11/the-agemo-traditions-of-ijebuland-primer.html">The
Agemo Traditions of Ijebuland - A Primer</a> (November 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In the journals of the annals<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">However, within the drafts of the
documentation my father did over decades of research and study, I found some
interesting stuff about age grades, a 3-year grouping with fantastic names that
allowed those born in our town to be represented amongst their peers. In which
you only needed to know the age grade name and who belonged where to ascertain within the margin of 3 years, the age of anyone so referenced.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The age grade information starting
from around the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> Century went back two to three
generations before mine, my own paternal great-grandmother on his mother’s side
greatly outlived all her peers by the time she passed on. The kind of rapport
she and I had was utterly friendly and extensive conversation. People
could not understand how or why we got on so well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Leaping into new age grades<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In this leap year, I celebrate my 15<sup>th</sup>
Leap Day and it portends that those born from the 1<sup>st</sup> of March
1964 to the 29<sup>th</sup> of February 1968 belong in this artificially
interesting leap day and year group. One of my former managers to whom I would
attribute such lasting influence in my career was born the day before this date
range and that would either make him 16 leap years old or an inductee into the
Diamond Jubilee cohort. I wish him well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Obviously, a 4-year time frame can be
quite a lengthy time to consider people's age mates or peers. Still, it presents
another dimension to our view of time, the passage of it, and how we reckon it
relates to the people we encounter from the past in the stories we are told or
the journals they have written, in the present as we recollect the memories of
our youth, where we are now and our hopes for the future, and conclusively, the
kinds of legacies we want to lay out for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, how many leap days have you
seen?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-41791846626909269032024-02-27T23:05:00.003+00:002024-02-27T23:15:21.797+00:00The arm of flesh will fail you<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/8x7XfGHm7lE?si=9ILw1X3iMAuqNH3W" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8x7XfGHm7lE/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Stand Up Stand Up For Jesus" by 250 Voice Mass Choir<br /><br /></div><div><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I do not remember the tune</span></b></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">While in church on
Sunday, I was in a conversation where I saw familiar words of hymns I had sung from
the <a href="https://www.forsyths.co.uk/sheet-music/by-instrument-family/choral/mixed-voices/688-songs-of-praise---dearmer-percy--vaughan-williams-r--shaw-martin-9780192312013.html">Songs
of Praise</a> hymn book that was used in my Methodist-founded secondary school.
It was first published in 1925, with updated editions thereafter.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">However, it was quite
discomfiting for one to know the words of a hymn only for the organist to play
a rather unfamiliar tune. The nostalgic moment of recognition and being taken back
in time to life probably only slightly more innocent than now, is lost in trying
to find your place and rhythm again.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Hear me sing
with aplomb<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Then with the Offertory
hymn, I, with full-throated voice, swayed in syncopation and rhythmic candour, I
knew the words and the organist played the tune. I half wanted to look back and
grin at my earlier interlocutor to suggest we have had an answered prayer or just
the propinquity of desire and coincidence. What an experience to have.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Then out of the recesses
of memory came the highlighted lines of the third verse of a hymn I can hardly say
I have sung in over 40 years. <a href="https://hymnary.org/text/stand_up_stand_up_for_jesus_duffield">Stand up, Stand
up for Jesus</a> which in those days had the organ powered by foot bellows and played
by a Muslim classmate. Only a few had art or skill with classical instruments and
when I did offer to learn, a teacher thwarted the activity rather than encouraged
it. Yet, I took from that short lesson the ability to play the tune to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-Re-Mi">Do-Re-Mi</a> song and never really
improved on it.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Stand up, stand up for Jesus,<br />
<b><i>stand in his strength alone;<br />
the arm of flesh will fail you,<br />
ye dare not trust your own.</i></b><br />
Put on the gospel armour,<br />
each piece put on with prayer;<br />
where duty calls or danger,<br />
be never wanting there.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Hymnary.org - <a href="https://hymnary.org/text/stand_up_stand_up_for_jesus_duffield">Stand up, stand
up for Jesus</a> - George Duffield (1858)<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Stand in his
strength alone<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">This probably presents
one of the biggest challenges of Christian living where we have learned, been schooled,
and have been taught to exert and exercise for achievement derived from endeavour
and sweat. The human-centred desire to excel and not attribute success to anyone
else without the bruises we have suffered.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The work of faith
that involves fully trusting in God for purpose, direction, instruction, inspiration,
and affirmation leaves you open to the accusation of being a religious fanatic.
Many do not believe in prayer or prayer that works. In terms, many do not even know
God’s will about what they pray about to have any kind of assurance beyond the moment
they are in.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Unlearning the way
of the world and society to stand in His strength alone is a daily quest for letting
the divine override the natural world and ways to launch into the orbit of the spirit
where one can call things that are not as though they were. God is a spirit and
they that worship him should worship him in spirit and in truth. [Bible Gateway:
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ephesians%206%3A10">Ephesians 6:10</a>,
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Proverbs%203:5">Proverbs 3:5</a>,
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%204:17">Romans 4:17</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%204:24">John 4:24</a>]<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The arm of
flesh will fail you<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The many promises
that have been made to us that never got fulfilled by those who in your time of
need or great adversity presented a succouring voice that with time was not followed
by any action.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In thinking of such,
one might be tempted to feel hard done by, hurt, or embittered. Then you realise
that for all the abilities people seem to think they have to get things done, meet
a demand, offer some support or anything else, they are seriously limited in ability,
reach, means, resources, or facility.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">We more typically
live from day to day as mere mortals unaware of the divine resources that are at
our disposal. The abundance of heavenly resources we can call upon but only if we
knew anything about God that was first introduced in the Old Testament of the Bible
and then the Father God that Jesus Christ revealed and demonstrated in His preaching
of the gospel, doing good and healing those who were oppressed.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">For the problems
that we encounter in life, God has promised us everything to do with life and godliness,
yet we depend on what we can do out of strength, maybe in our cunning, or on others
who have a frame of reference uninformed by the Word of God and limited to the natural
realm.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There is no blessing
in trusting the arm of flesh, it even suggests those who do have turned from the
Lord. [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Jeremiah%2017:5">Jeremiah 17:5</a>,
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%2020:7">Psalm 20:7</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Peter%201:3">2 Peter 1:3</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%2014:12">John 14:12</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Acts%2010:38">Acts 10:38</a>]<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Ye dare not
trust your own<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, what constitutes
our upbringing, our education, and our experiences is generally to equip us for
a seemingly godless world, where your wits and hard work should yield success. Then,
many strive so hard and get nothing or whatever they get is not enduring.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Heck! The booms and
busts that have become like milestones in my own life could easily lead one to totally
give up, as it can be quite exhausting. It is an engine of hope and expectation
created by God within me that keeps me knowing that the night shall pass, the storms
shall pass, the pain shall pass, the lack shall pass and His will will be done.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Through time, I have
believed in myself, had supreme confidence, and felt I was at the peak of my powers
to even project the unassailable before everything came crashing down like a pack
of cards.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Trust is in short
supply, there is much to learn and understand about trusting God and almost the
people you choose to trust with intimate challenges who can give you the desired
support and encouragement to traverse the evil day, the wilderness, the doldrums,
and the unfortunate circumstances we often encounter. [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%204:8">1 Timothy 4:8</a>,
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%2034:19">Psalm 34:19</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%20112:7">Psalm 112:7</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Jeremiah%2029:11">Jeremiah 29:11</a>]<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Never a hopeless
situation<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I am constantly reevaluating
what I believe and my faith to be sure that I am never in a situation where I have
nothing that can be brought to bear on any situation.<u1:p></u1:p> [Bible
Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/2%20Corinthians%2013:5">2
Corinthians 13:5</a>]</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In the times of the
greatest anxiety, I pray, I speak in tongues, and I endeavour not to dwell on the
issues that might exacerbate worry and distress. [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%208:26">Romans 8:26</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Nowadays, I purposefully decide to sleep and rest even as I am still
learning to let God have it all. As He never slumbers nor sleeps, there is no reason
for both of us to keep awake through the night.<u1:p></u1:p> [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%20121:4">Psalm 121:4</a>]</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">I listen to sermons
about how great God is and who God says I am. One area where I need to devote more
voice is speaking to the problem about God, rather than speaking to God about the
problem.<u1:p></u1:p> [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2011:23">Mark 11:23</a>]</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">There is great capacity
and possibility in a person who knows God for who God is in His love for us and
his care for us, we are only going to find out from His word and those anointed
to preach the word.<u1:p></u1:p> [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2019:26">Matthew 19:26</a>]</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">In that alone, I
am not ashamed to know the Christ who came for me that I might have eternal life
that starts from this life I am already living on earth. It is why through all adversity,
as long as I live, there is hope, change, and a testimony of the goodness and mercy
that follows me.<u1:p></u1:p> [Bible Gateway: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Romans%201:16">Romans 1:16</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20John%205:13">1 John 5:13</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%2023:6">Psalm 23:6</a>]</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>PS:</b> <i>Click on and meditate
on the links to the verses on this blog and I know that whatever you might be going
through, you will find an answer that will give you strength, comfort, resolution,
and joy.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Shalom! Shalom!</span></p></div>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-37868615072624560542024-02-24T16:41:00.003+00:002024-03-08T12:36:08.667+00:00Thought Picnic: Seeing the more in the person<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Just as it is</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I recently had a series of exchanges
that pertained to relationships concerning significant others. My
inclination to err on the side of full disclosure has meant that in most cases
the discovery of who I am does not come as a total surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Being open about my sexuality since
the early 1990s when it was not popular and sometimes frowned upon in the
workplace was not to exhibit flamboyance but to address the scenarios where
loose talk might cause unnecessary and avoidable offence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I have been quite fortunate that I
have encountered very little discrimination on the matter. If you ask a direct
question, you will get the answer, when I was in a relationship, who I was in a
relationship with and what we planned to do at the weekend. Relationships have
always mattered to me because it meant I had someone with whom to share life
experiences, unconventional as that situation might be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Engagement with due consideration<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In many cases, I have had colleagues ask
questions, seeking information or enlightenment, sometimes about me, about themselves, or someone else. I would speak from my experience and understanding
of issues, whether it be curiosity or having to deal with the situation of a
friend abandoning a marriage for a new journey of self-discovery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">For me as a person, it matters and
when others give due consideration to it, acknowledge it, respect it, and genuinely enquire about my well-being by embracing that context. It is why I felt
quite enamoured when a prospective colleague deduced from my frequent travels
and other information I divulged, that those journeys for whatever length of time
they were for, were essentially family visits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">As we love to be loved<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It is important and it is about my well-being
and happiness rather than about anyone else, we choose our friends and much as
we choose our partners, all familial and extended relations have the choice to
embrace, reject, or be indifferent, but who an individual has as their
significant other remains so regardless of opinion, for a different kind of
intimacy exists between partners that is not present with any other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">There is something about being
fulfilled and completed by certain associations, you may not understand it, but
it exists, and it is what it is. For me, Brian represents that significant
other and to be loved, cared for and supported like I am can only be what
anyone else wishes for in whoever they have chosen to be their partner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">We should be careful not to be tempted
to dismiss the importance and significance of the intimate relationships of
others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Related Blogs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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my life, this is me</a></span></i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif">
<i>(February 2019)</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2019/09/doing-what-i-do-for-love.html">Doing what
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2020/02/brian-my-funniest-valentine.html">Brian,
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2020/08/finding-who-all-matters-with.html">Finding
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2021/05/thought-picnic-understanding-my-greater.html">Thought
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2021/12/this-is-deep-stuff-now.html">This is deep
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2022/04/make-someone-happy.html">Make Someone
Happy</a> (April 2022)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2023/05/thought-picnic-mostly-one-is-not-alone.html">Thought
Picnic: Mostly, one is not alone</a> (May 2023)</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-7431991853924642672024-02-21T20:34:00.005+00:002024-03-08T12:36:33.856+00:00Read and analyse the bloody tales and trends<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Above range readings</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Earlier this month, I contacted my GP
(doctor) to discuss the results of tests I took in November when some
indicators gave me cause for concern. Usually, I would wait for my next
biannual checkup and visit with a range of questions and analyses of trends I
want explained in essential layman’s detail to my understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Especially now that every single
result is posted to a personal portal from which you assess the test results against
the expected normal ranges and the trends over a period. Two measurements stood
out in the blood tests I took in November, the Mean corpuscular haemoglobin (<a href="https://www.health.com/mch-7099097">MCH</a>), measured in picograms per
red blood cell [pg] with a normal range of 27 to 33, and the Mean corpuscular
volume (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_corpuscular_volume">MCV</a>),
measured in femtolitres [fL] (10<sup>-15</sup>) with a normal range of 80 to 98,
and it is a measure of the average volume of a red blood corpuscle or red blood
cell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">When they measure above the normal
range, this might be indicative of a form of anaemia related to iron, folate,
or Vitamin B12 deficiency, and since I once had folate deficiency anaemia, I
wanted this addressed before other issues resulted from it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Even more detail<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My GP invited me to the surgery for a
complete set of blood tests where each of the indicators would be checked and I
was ready to pursue better outcomes by looking the trend between November and
February to urge immediate action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">On reviewing the new results, the MCV
had returned within the normal range, but the MCH remained the same reading as
before, a note from the assessor suggested no further action was required, I
begged to differ and consequently we had a conversation today about those results.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What made the difference this time was
serum levels were read for ferritin pertaining to iron, which was normal,
Vitamin B12 was also within range, but the folate was well below range. I had
already been taking vitamin and folic acid supplements from over the counter,
however, I felt a stronger prescription was needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The prescription matters<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I picked up my prescription from the
pharmacy and when I opened the pack, the comparison between over-the-counter
medication and the prescription was astounding, I would never have been able to
get back into the normal range with the supplements and just my diet. The over-the-
counter medication has a dosage of one tablet daily with a strength of 400µg,
the strength of the daily dose of folic acid is 500mg, meaning I would have had
to take 12 and a half tablets of the non-prescription medication to have any prospect
of righting the folate deficiency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">For all that I have written, the main
takeaway from me to anyone who takes good consideration of their health is to
read to understand every test result you get. Ask questions where things are
not clear. Fully pursue any concerns you might have, and seek a second opinion
if you are unsure, uncertain, or unhappy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Always follow through<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The NHS is in the process of implementing
<a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/marthas-rule/">Martha’s Rule</a>,
a set of protocols that would ensure that concerns about a patient’s
deteriorating condition are subject to rapid review when raised. It would not
be enough to just get assurances or be fobbed off by superciliousness, someone
would have to attend the situation and arrive at a conclusion with commensurate
action to address the emerging or emergency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Hence my advice to read the bloody
tales and ensure someone is addressing anything that falls out of the normal
ranges with alacrity, consideration, and professionalism. In my case, we’ll
have another review in a few weeks.</span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-58874523234887559482024-02-20T18:38:00.005+00:002024-02-20T18:38:48.228+00:00Privacy in a world of extroverts and exhibitionists<p><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">When is it too much?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">It is interesting when you encounter
invasive disclosure requirements that leave you wondering if you have become
overexposed and vulnerable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">You meet a fine line and distinction
that probably is left to gut instinct as to how you respond and what you are willing
to give away. For instance, when over a decade ago the gap in my employment was
predicated on the need for cancer treatment and recuperation, I offered to
present a medical note from my consultant, but the employer instead requested my
medical prescription.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">For me, that was egregious and
intrusive, I could find no rationale for such a request. Then again, I half
appreciated that the request was being processed outside of the boundaries of
Europe even as the job was in the UK and I lived in the Netherlands. Much as I
could have challenged the request further than I did, I felt that this kind of
unwarranted intrusion was not only adverse but that the cultural norms of a certain
domain had not cultivated the understanding of elements of privacy we Europeans
were accustomed to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">Handling the issues with tact<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">I soon removed myself from the process
and declined the offer because we had reached an impasse beyond which there was
no viable future in which I would have felt comfortable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">Indeed, the issues of privacy,
secrecy, and confidentiality work together to protect the person we are, having
the confidence that you only need to share what is necessary for the sake of
meeting a requirement without losing the mechanisation or automation of
expediency. I still believe even as a technologist that traditional methods of
handling private data have better checks and balances that are less susceptible
to unfortunate biases.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">At other times, it is being
embarrassed by circumstances engendering almost a sense of shame or failure,
but these are all part of the story of life if systems are allowed to spare
our blushes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">I hope I still have some control<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">I consciously curate what I am ready
to reveal and share, I have faced some challenges that have required
inspiration and dare I say of divine provenance to address certain requests.
Important in all of this is being open about very significant elements of
myself that half a century ago would not have been possible and is still
detrimental in some countries and regions around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">Where you do not want to be is
realising you have lost control of your own narrative in the quest for
something you desire, but not at any price.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">We have such wide-ranging diversity and have encountered serious adversity at various times, yet we are who we are with
all that pertains to who we are and the relationships we hold dear. We understand
responsibility and loyalty and appreciate the quality of character while striving
for a better world in whatever place we might find ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif;">I guess I am grateful for
understanding and being understood. Even the most interesting and good books
need covers, and the most beautiful windows do at times need the curtains
drawn. Between the exhibitionist by inclination and the spectacle by duress,
neither should be the only choices about how we choose to tell our stories if
we are not fully persuaded.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-37601217153873556072024-02-16T16:02:00.004+00:002024-03-08T12:36:50.702+00:00Holding sway in the kitchen<p><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Loving the kitchen stage</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The kitchen is a theatre, a place of deep expression, where practice and application bring forth snacks or feasts for sustenance and even celebration.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I enjoy being in the kitchen, that work of bringing together ingredients, some never imagined co-exist to become something that excites the tastebuds and sates both appetite and hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Invariably, I love cooking, usually for myself but more to share with others, not large proportions for a party, just enough for a few at a table, a full course with wine with Brian is even the greatest pleasure I indulge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">When nature calls<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Recently, I found myself rocking from foot to foot and remembering the times in Cape Town when my need to find relief just seemed to coincide with when I was in the middle of getting things done. At this point, I want to rush before my bowels burst and I wet myself, just as I feel I cannot stop what I am doing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Brian has now cottoned on this strange situation as someone being pressed who needs to suffer than be succoured. Whilst it happens almost unawares, I have sought the discipline to conceal this call of nature until after it has been answered, my returning to the kitchen grinning knowing I have escaped duress. I have to master this first at home, but I have not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Maybe what I really must do is ensure everything to the ablutions is done before I start anything in the kitchen. Curbing my enthusiasm to start and giving myself the consideration of relief before recipe might just be the best thing to do.</span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-18888590206528694202024-02-15T15:34:00.003+00:002024-03-08T12:37:14.718+00:00Memento, homo, quia pulvis es<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/mbGrq_QaEg4?si=YNEoeEPCF8IANTnE" width="480"></iframe></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chant of the Heart: Miserere Mei (Psalm 50/51)</span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Influenced by many beliefs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I do not make much advertisement about
my beliefs or faith, though, in many of my writings I might allude to how I am
persuaded of things, views, doctrines, life, and much else.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My Christian journey is interesting and
varied, first seen through the inclinations of my parents, their siblings, and
their friends who all attended different denominations from Anglican to which I
was both baptised and confirmed, the Christ Apostolic Church that my mother
attended before her marriage, the Cherubim and Seraphim Church that my younger
aunt attended, the Methodist Church that my elder aunt attended and the Methodists
founded my secondary school in February 1946.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Filling in forms the other day, one of
the options included Charismatic Christian, which I found interesting as until
then, the broadly Christian cachet was used. I embrace the charismatic
demonstration of my Christian experience which I encountered 40 years ago in
April and even with the many characterisations of belief, unbelief, or
disbelief I have been exposed to, the relearning of what the dispensation of
grace pertains to remains more pertinent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Ash Wednesday in practice<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I had planned to make pancakes for
Shrove Tuesday, but I inadvertently had to be in Edinburgh for an engagement and
returned quite late on Tuesday, too tired to do anything other than go to bed. I also
wanted to return on Tuesday, because I was on the rota stewarding the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday">Ash Wednesday</a> Sung Eucharist
with the Imposition of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday#Ashes">Ashes</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The ashes are part of a ritual signifying
penitence where typically the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday are burnt
to have the ash for marking the sign of the cross on the foreheads of adherents
kneeling at the altar. At the imposition of the ashes, the priest would say
words to the effect in Latin or in the vernacular, “Memento, homo, quia pulvis
es, et in pulverem reverteris.” (“<i>Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to
dust thou shalt return</i>.”)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In addition, the priest said, “<i>Turn
away from sin and be faithful to Christ</i>.” It was a solemn occasion of
awareness, mortality, and the eternal purpose to which we are called. The
individuality of knowing yourself in the congregation of the many, your own heart
seen and known by God is humbling. I may not essentially be fasting for Lent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Combining my devotional allegiances<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In the background, the Choir as we all
met in the quire sang Psalm 51 as canticles in Latin. The high church traditions
of our Anglican community could be quite fascinating as we the stewards took
the offering and ushered the congregants first towards the imposition and then
later to the Communion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">These activities would barely, if
ever, be seen in a charismatic church gathering, but I find that I enjoy
practising my Christian devotion primarily in the Anglican Church, occasionally
in a charismatic church, and generally in listening to messages and sermons by evangelical
preachers. An amalgam of community and beliefs that suits my expression and
understanding with the assurance that I have found love, truth, mercy, grace,
and favour.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-27721364706972800492024-02-09T15:32:00.001+00:002024-03-08T12:37:34.323+00:00Yesterday remembered today<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Of
days remembered</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
probably have a knack for remembering dates and events, though I cannot say I
have total recall of everything. Sometimes, things are not remembered at all,
or the memory is a bit fuzzy. Much as I had many encounters with diaries
growing up, I never saw anyone journalling anything, the most a diary was used
for was appointments and at a stretch, a calendar.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Having
a blog going back 20 years has offered key points of journalling, though not in
the strict sense, I still find myself noticing and making notes in blogs that I
can reference as an aide-mémoire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yesterday,
all my troubles<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
thought about writing this yesterday but here I am reflecting on the
significance of yesterday today. The 8<sup>th</sup> of February; when I joined
Twitter, I buried a friend, and it turned out to be my last session of
chemotherapy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Interestingly,
the former happened in 2009 in the week that the 13<sup>th</sup> fell on a
Friday and I joined the bandwagon of those caught in the grip of </span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th">paraskavedekatriaphobia</a></span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> on
what appeared to be the coldest day in the office because someone thought that
would be our contribution to helping stem the problems with climate change. We
were to wrap up warm rather than enjoy the ambiance of a comfortable office. My
first tweet? See below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I am now a twit on twitter ...</span></p><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ 🏳️🌈 #European (@forakin) <a href="https://twitter.com/forakin/status/1188693449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2009</a></span></blockquote><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2009/02/caught-between-paraskavedekatriaphobia.html">Caught
between Paraskavedekatriaphobia and Cryophobia</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A
sad tragedy, it was<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then
in 2010, my friend Dick van Galen Last died on the 2<sup>nd</sup> of
February, 8 days short of his 58th birthday, and hardly 2 weeks after he defended his PhD thesis, an event I could not
attend as I was experiencing the most debilitating effects of chemotherapy two
days after, I was so weak and for the first time, I had anti-emetic medication
that worked a treat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
had planned on calling Dick to ask about his defense as he had informed me in
late December that he was having his PhD viva voce and I had made my excuses
that I might be unable to attend. It was then that he told me he was undergoing
treatment for lymphoma, I cannot remember if it was Hodgkins or non-Hodgkins. I
quipped; we might meet for tea in the treatment room as we shared the same
oncologist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When
my phone ranged on Wednesday the 3<sup>rd</sup> of February, the number ID came
up as Dick’s phone number, but it was Ousman on the phone who was Dick’s lodger
and he regularly came to clean my apartment, the news he had on the phone was
that Dick had passed on, but he had refused to have Dick taken away, Dick was
lain in his bed for his friends to come and pay their respects until the day of
his buried. I cried all the way to Dick’s place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2010/02/dick-as-he-lay.html">Dick: As he lay</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A
man, a celebration<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
morning of the 8<sup>th</sup> of February was a dreadfully cold winter morning,
I got on my bicycle and rode to the St Barbara Cemetery where we all assembled
in the chapel to give Dick a rousing and celebratory send-off, the crowd,
especially of the youth that attended with the eclectic mix of different cultures
and personalities was a testament to the person he was. The music as pallbearers
carried him to the burial plot could not have been out of place at a carnival.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2010/02/seeing-dick-off.html">Seeing Dick Off</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However,
I could not wait to see him buried as I had another appointment, the 7<sup>th</sup>
session of chemotherapy, with the 8<sup>th</sup> and what I had hoped would be
the last scheduled for the 1<sup>st</sup> of March. When I arrived at the
hospital, the nurses who also knew Dick were quite sad at his passing, one even
indicating there was nothing to suggest Dick was at risk of death, he did not
have the kind of prognosis I was given at my diagnosis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It
became the last one<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Not
a vein could be found around my hands up my wrist to insert a cannula for chemotherapy
even after warming my hands in hot water than the insertion was further up the
arm near where phlebotomists took blood. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2010/02/almost-in-vain-for-vein.html">Almost in
vain for a vein</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
did not know that session would be my last chemotherapy dose until a checkup over
a week later in conversation with my consultant that they agreed that the focus
should be on recovering my immune system and the chemotherapy had done its job
fully as predicted by the consultant in September that the cancer could be
treated if I tolerated the treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
could have made much of yesterday and yesterday is a narrative that gives the
past a telling different from when you are living in the present. Thank you for
the past we can remember in words of triumphal living against all adversity.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-1462100273086949122024-02-06T00:17:00.014+00:002024-03-08T12:37:54.538+00:00Cancer: No journey is the same<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Cancer humanises us</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The news that King Charles III has
been diagnosed with cancer brings a sense of shared humanity in its frailty,
suffering, mortality, and survival. We are told it is not prostate cancer and
it was discovered when he went in for a procedure due to an enlarged prostate. [<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-68210644">BBC: King Charles diagnosed
with cancer</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">As a monarchist, a fellow human being,
and a survivor of cancer, I can only wish His Majesty a full recovery and restoration
to health and vigour. Yet, a cancer diagnosis can come with shock and a dire
prognosis, in my experience, is not a battle to fight as only the real tools we have
against cancer are faith and hope. Faith that the medicine, the miracle, or
both work and the hope that there is a life after cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">This looks serious<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I watched as what seemed like Athlete’s
Foot on my left sole change from the dark blotches of discolouration into a
painful weeping sore, I foolishly thought it would go away even as a little
voice in me whispered this was cancer tugging at the heart of my life ready
to thrust me off this mortal coil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Eventually, I summed up the courage to
go to my doctor demanding urgent attention as the pain had become otherworldly
unbearable. The moment she saw my foot, she said, “This looks serious, I have
to refer you.” Immediately, she was on the phone to the hospital and moving
heaven and earth to get me in as soon as possible, and I got an appointment for
the day after.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">On observation by the consultant, he
said, this is serious and is related to internal diseases, the internist would
be in next week on Tuesday, it was Thursday, and I’ll be the first person he’ll see. I was given
painkillers that killed nothing, a placebo would have done much better to
manage the pain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I have heard, then again, I know the
pain of cancer, I was eventually on 4 different kinds of pain management, the
most effective being a Fentanyl patch that I received a doubled dosage of after
a few weeks because that pain just refused to fully subside.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">We can treat this<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Several analyses were conducted on
what were fungating tumours that antibiotics did not seem to affect, having
eliminated a diabetic cause, a deep biopsy of the lesions was done, and then the
consultant came to my bed to give me the news on the 9<sup>th</sup> day of my admission
to the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">These were his words, “<i>We can treat
this, but it depends on how your body can take the treatment, if you can
tolerate it, you’ll be fine, otherwise, you probably have 5 weeks.</i>” Two things
I took away from this message, the advances in cancer treatment for Kaposi’s
sarcoma were such that medicine had confidence, and the fact that mortality loomed
5 weeks away left you with a sense of the gravity of what a cancer
diagnosis might mean to anyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">At that point, I thought, I am going
to survive this because I had by then navigated the <a href="https://www.psycom.net/stages-of-grief">Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief</a>,
skipping Depression and Bargaining to reach an Acceptance that I spoke within
myself, “Akin, you have cancer, what next?” I was already looking beyond cancer
and with that, I had my belief, my faith, and my prayers with the support of
many friends and particularly neighbours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Treating cancer, killing cells<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I began my 1<sup>st</sup> course of
chemotherapy on the 5<sup>th</sup> of October 2009, it was to be administered
at 10:00 AM but delayed for 3 hours, I did not know that after the course I
would be consigned to cytostatic ostracism as the cytotoxic component of
pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (tradename <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/caelyx-pegylated-liposomal">Caelyx</a>)
meant no one should be in contact with any of my bodily fluids for up 5 days
after chemotherapy. Nurses had to don personal protective equipment (PPE) to
take blood or dispose of my urine. It was unpleasant, the treatment and the
treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">As I tolerated the chemotherapy, more
sessions were added, and I became more nauseous after every session three weeks
apart that by the 5<sup>th</sup> session, I was given novel anti-emetic
medication to help keep my food down for the days after chemotherapy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">When I saw that a 9<sup>th</sup> chemotherapy
session was scheduled, I remonstrated to my consultant that I was planning on restarting my life from the 1<sup>st</sup> of March 2010 when I was to have received the 8<sup>th</sup>
chemotherapy dose, they stopped with the 7<sup>th</sup> which I took on Monday,
the 8<sup>th</sup> of February 2010 in the afternoon after I had attended the
funeral service of my dear friend Dick van Galen Last who sadly did not
tolerate the chemotherapy as well. We had the same oncologist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">By the 4<sup>th</sup> chemotherapy dose,
the cancer lesions had disappeared, and beneath the necrotised skin which had to
be stripped off was fresh pink skin which however did not retain that colour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What to expect<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Each cancer journey is different, I
count myself fortunate that the body of knowledge accrued from many who had no
hope when medicine first encountered these cancers, others on whom experiments
were conducted and never survived, then those for whom successes led to
improvements and advancements that we further down the line took advantage of
because medicine was confident and the treatments could be better managed for
good outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Do they know what you have?</span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Do you understand it and how far gone
is it?</span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Is it treatable and what is the
prognosis?</span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What particular outcomes do you want, what options do you have, some might just want to go home than face gruelling cancer treatment? </span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">How prepared are you in spirit, mind,
and body for this journey?</span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What is your source of hope in the
midst of adversity?</span></li><li><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What support networks do you have to
draw on?</span></li></ul><p></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Hope springs eternal, I believed and
saw myself beyond the cancer and probably not much further, but each stage of
progress gave the kind of assurance that there will be life after cancer and
even if there was none, I would not have died in despair, hopeless, hapless,
and without any sense of having lived well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It is the most encouragement I can
give to anyone facing cancer, it is a difficult process, it is part of the
human story, some survive, and many do not, we are all grateful for life, but
the biggest battle when faced with adversity is whether you can see yourself
getting beyond it or life ending because of it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is no judgement in what you see,
either way, your life and your story would be you lived, you loved, you touched
and were touched, and the rest falls into the annals of timeless eternity, you
walked this earth and will never be forgotten.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-31048751589889063022024-02-05T12:38:00.001+00:002024-03-08T12:38:12.682+00:00Men's Health: Do the important and intimate checks<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Looking
forward</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
have noticed an enthusiasm with which I talk about becoming 60, I am hardly 2
months into being 58, yet, next year is the golden jubilee. I first noticed
this when I attended a group session that involved yoga exercises, I could not
help but notice my apparent flexibility as compared to many of the younger
participants. Our yoga instructor herself is 60.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However,
it is not just a matter of age but one of wearing it well, the whole <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_positivity">body positivity</a>
discourse also involves a bit of work on our part, it should not be a license to
just let everything go. Indeed, we should be happy with our bodies, especially
with the things we cannot change, things we can change with regards to losing pounds/kilos,
healthy eating, a bit of exercise, and basic medical check-ups must be attended
to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Screenings
galore<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Those
things have had my medical minders harping on about what should be checked and
noticed so issues can be caught and dealt with promptly. The other day, it was
the NHS sending a bowel cancer screening kit that required a sampling of my
stool for analysis to be sent in the post for a result that thankfully meant
there was nothing to be concerned about. This, I am informed, would be checked
every two years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Another
range of issues that have come up have to do with blood pressure, diabetes,
prostate cancer, liver and kidney function, and cholesterol checks. Most of
these I have twice a year under my regular clinical checks apart from the
prostate cancer <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/prostate-cancer/psa-testing/">prostate-specific
antigen (PSA) test</a>. This has come up in a few discussions in group sessions
and even closer to home but has been left unattended to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Blood
tales<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When
the results of blood tests came in just over 2 months ago, I found that my <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/mcv-mean-corpuscular-volume/">mean
corpuscular volume (MCV)</a> and <a href="https://www.health.com/mch-7099097">mean
corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH)</a> were reading beyond the normal range on the
high side and indicative of both Vitamin B12 and folate (Vitamin B9) deficiency.
This would mean despite my consumption of red meat and other aspects of diet; I
was not getting enough from food and even supplements. All other indicators
are normal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif">This issue of <a href="http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/tc/folic-acid-deficiency-anemia-topic-overview">Folic
Acid Deficiency Anaemia</a></span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> came up about 7 years ago and I took supplements for
it that subsequent readings came within range. It is the symptom of peripheral
neuropathy in my right hand, that got me a bit concerned that I had to call my
GP surgery for a conversation, and this meant I was in the surgery early this
morning to give blood for a whole battery of tests to assess basically
everything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Eye
on the future<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It
is not only for peace of mind, the knowledge about how your body is performing
can allow for the necessary adjustments to keep you well and healthy. I know it is
difficult for men to broach and discuss intimate health issues, but what is
worse is leaving it to a point when you literally have no other options apart
from facing terminal and possibly managed decline.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Having
once had life-threatening cancer almost 15 years ago, I am aware of the need to
be informed and understanding of the conditions in my body. There are probably
times I have been fatalistic thinking I did not have much time left and did not
effectively plan for the future. There have been such great advances in
medicine and outcomes, then the good results of tests conducted over a decade
that would suggest that I have been miraculously blessed to have better health,
fitness, and strength than I have had in decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This
calls for apprehension and anticipation, regulation, and planning, even so, the
consideration beyond self to others with whom one shares life, experiences,
hope, and a future. If anything is to be learnt, it is, health is wealth and
men need to do the healthy to remain wealthy.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-12044076794298500222024-02-04T13:11:00.005+00:002024-03-08T12:38:32.013+00:00Driving confidence<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Driving ahead</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They say a horse can sense the fear and
nervousness of a rider in the saddle, as I am not a horse rider, I hope
the first time I do mount a horse, it will feel that beyond my being a
learner, I intend to have a really good time exuding confidence that I am being
borne with dignity to the extent that the horse would contribute to the
experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I found myself observing an
interesting stance on the control of the automobile. Interestingly, I do not
drive, and I cannot drive because of issues with my eyesight reduced by no
conception of stereo vision, I have a lazy eye making judging distance and
speed of approach quite difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Bosom driving<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">A lady literally had her chest on the
steering wheel, and that was not because of her ‘Dolly Parton’ assets, she had
leaned so far forward, her forearms had no clearance as her hands gripped the
top of the steering wheel, every so intently, I could sense the apparent lack
of confidence in her driving.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It was like her exercise of caution had become a
dangerous safety issue if at any time she needed to execute an emergency
manoeuvre. Even a non-driver could see it. I would hate to be a passenger in
her car.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Then think of those holding the
steering wheel at arm’s length, leant back with both hands on the wheel,
probably not monarchs of the road but not shy either.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Driving with Mrs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">A husband and wife in the car and
relaxed driving, both arms dropped down and the steering wheel lightly held at the
bottom. They are probably on a leisurely day out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Then thinking of the man with an arm on
the side window and a finger hooking the side of the steering wheel, the other
hand on his lap, maybe his head is bopping to the sound of the loud music in
his car. That's self-confidence bordering on the supercilious.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My mother started driving in the 60s,
though she cannot drive anymore due to sight degeneration. She was always
confident and assertive, even on one instance in the mid-1970s, after she
was overtaken by a bus driver, he popped his head out of his window to look as
if in disbelief that it was a woman driving and driving so well too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The driving kings<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Yet, the kings of the road are not the
fast car aficionados who have taken their middle-life crisis to the Ferrari or Lamborghini
without having kept trim that they are forklifted into the car, and they have to
crawl out on hands and knees, the indignity, it was a widely shared video on
social media.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They are in fact, the truck and coach
drivers who through use and practice with their fully aware responsibility of
human or goods cargo have with practice and experience mastered both vehicle
and route, their steering wheels quite like plates angled slightly over
their laps and the manoeuvrability that would leave you amazed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They are confident and effortlessly
so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Driving from the back seat<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">But I must end with the backseat
drivers of which my father is a prime example and from whom I have acquired so
much driving theory, I could well be a professor of theoretical driving. In his
professional years in senior management, he had company cars that came with his
role, and to the company cars were assigned drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">One such driver had before been a
truck driver and had the penchant for slightly overshooting a turning before
turning in as one would when driving a truck or heavy goods vehicle with the
length that defines them, this is far different from the shorter length of a 4-door
sedan car, and even from being absorbed in the morning newspaper, the Chief
Accountant would thunder from behind, the alert for a driving admonition to the
driver began with what essentially was his mannerism, “Look!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Yes, “Look!”, was the equivalent of
Jesus’ statements that began with ‘Verily, verily,’ in the King James Version
of the Bible, it was the notification to prick your ears for an incoming pearl
of driving wisdom. Whilst sitting in the front passenger’s seat, it was there that
I learnt, you do not need to put your foot on the brakes to slow down on a
motorway, if you have a lot of stopping distance, just shift your gears
downward and enjoy the science of automobile engineering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have resisted every urge to be a
backseat driver where partners like Steven in the 1990s and Brian presently are
concerned, they are very good drivers though and I thank them for having such
driving confidence, if I had the eyes for it, their example would have stood me
well.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-50134968218617207242024-02-01T22:07:00.003+00:002024-03-08T12:38:57.977+00:00Childhood: The fears and hairs that still haunt<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What I heard to my hurt<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My ears have a sense of betrayal of
self, the sounds that syncopate with the rhythmic resonance of my ear drums taking
me into worlds that I have never intended to visit. It was one such occasion
when my aunt and our male valet or servant were having this conversation about
the esoteric and weird, uncanny stories of the evil supernatural in the hearing
of an impressionable 10-year-old.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Seeds sown into my vivid imagination would
result in 2 terrifying encounters in which I believed I had seen the devil, a
red-crested beastly creature at about 7 feet tall, arms raised like in
surrender, but I saw terror and the spirit of fear that I never knew before
took hold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">A dismissal of my experience<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In the first sighting, my father
dismissed my screams as some sort of juvenile exuberance and over-excitation,
until late at night I woke up to a sound that brought everyone running to my
rescue. My mother was both confused and perplexed by this strange change in my
demeanour and as we sat in the living room this apparition appeared again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My listening experience in the space
of less than 30 minutes, the unguarded conversations of seeming adults unaware
of the consequences of their discussion in the presence of a child would
suggest that in the 1970s there was no knowledge of the serious safeguarding requirements
to having anyone care for children and the result was a spectrum of child abuse,
much of which I have written of.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In the grip of superstition beyond
sense<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I guess this informs why I curate what
I absorb into my overactive imagination, fundamentally, I do not watch horror
films, I have the capacity to imagine enough without have the stimulation of
things that might go beyond my control.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Maybe I do now rationalise situations
in which I find myself that I am more controlling of irrational fear, or so I
think. Then I was walking up a road late at night when I realised the open
field to my left was in fact a disused cemetery some gravestones displaced like
a place abandoned and desecrated to the extent that the forgotten are indeed forgotten
in terms of care for the place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Between the temptation to look there
and look away, I quickened my steps and still stole a few glances, for where in
folklore have, I acquired the idea that a graveyard, the reliquary of the dead could
be a hive of activity that would interact with the living? And yet, whatever
schooled that idea into my consciousness has left it unlearnt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I was ready to scream<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Then the hairs still in their roots of
my bald scalp were standing on their ends, in an excited state of sense
something otherworldly. In the grip of unexplained fear, a wild guttural sound
was forming in my throat and ready to explore into a torrent of the fiendish wailing
of a banshee, and on the other hand, I checked myself thinking, why are you
about to scream about nothing but the phantoms in your head?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It is however likely, if I had
screamed I might have not only given voice to the fear, but also it would have allowed
the extirpation of the tension, a release that might have brought people to
enquire about the source of my discomfiture either for my embarrassment or in
sympathy for hapless mental gymnastics with endearing pity for my need of some
sort of help.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Time in a timeless appearance<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It was not long after that, a homeless
man in the recesses of a building along the way nodding to something asked for
the time. A time I should have been ensconced in the warmth of my bed. The
reckoning wondering is the person I told the time was homeless as pertains to
the life in which we live or homeless from the displaced stones of the
graveyard in an encounter I was not prepared to countenance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">If there is a lesson in this that has
had lasting consequences for almost half a century, it is an admonition to
parents to beware of the people they expose their children to, whether
relations or employees. I doubt many parents fully appreciate what it might
portend and, in my case, I might have been better helped by a child psychiatrist
then being trafficked between religious and animist grottos of unlicensed
practitioners of strange acts along with the rituals of reading Psalms in a
language I hardly spoke into buckets of water for spiritual ablutions to ward
away evil spirits. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">You haven’t heard half the tale of
this gruelling thing, much of which I attempt to forget as I also deign to
forgive. Much as one was wronged there is grace that abounds to soothe and calm
the troubled soul and it in that knowledge that I have found hope and
redemption.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Related blog<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2021/06/thought-picnic-child-has-memories-that.html">Thought
Picnic: A child has memories that last a lifetime</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-32550970846764985042024-02-01T10:25:00.006+00:002024-03-08T12:39:25.253+00:00In the dead of the night, don't go changing money for strangers<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It’s
all on the money</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It was a chance to eavesdrop on a conversation that left me wondering about human psychology and
social engineering along with the ease with which one can so easily fall for
scams or deceit by reason of vanity overwhelming essential self-awareness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It was
at first three people engaged in bargaining activity over money, I could hear the
young man and the lady resist every entreaty, that I immediately thought the
other man was trying to pawn off some baubles or contraband just to get cash in
hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
couple was not persuaded and as they separated and this in the witching hour,
the man wheeled his bicycle which I had not noticed before towards a black cab
where he addressed the driver, and I got a full context of what was going on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pounding
for a dollar in hand<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He had
a $100 bill that he wanted to exchange for Pounds Sterling cash and for some
reason, this might have been so urgent that he was not ready to wait for a
Bureau de Change to open for that business transaction, or so it would seem before my mind took a ponder on the brief scenario that I had witnessed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
exchange rate at today’s prices suggests $100 would be exchanged for something
between £77 and £82 and that is not accounting for transaction costs, commissions,
and other charges. I heard the man negotiating from £80 down to around £60.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
won’t know what an authentic $100 bill looks like and how to account for
whether it is legal tender or a counterfeit, then a stranger approaches you in
the middle of the night with what seems like a bargain, you none the wiser of
where he got the bill, beguiled by whatever sob story he has to regale, and your better instincts see you parting with £70 for this unverified paper purporting
to be the almighty dollar, you hoping at your convenience you can walk up to a
teller at a Bureau de Change and get £80 or maybe £85 for it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
vanity of half-knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
hate to think of the number of people who have been suckered into the
laundering of counterfeit notes and this is not to say the bill in question was
counterfeit. Then, many of us might deign to think ourselves
seasoned <a href="https://www.oed.com/dictionary/numismatician_n?tl=true">numismaticians</a>
(which might read like a neologism, but it is in the Oxford dictionary, I
checked), take any bill and give it the handling, feel, sight, light, and smell
test, convinced in our assured dilettantism that we have the Real McCoy, only
to find at the end of the conversation with the teller, the next day, the
teller goes out of sight for a few minutes and next you are being frog-marched by
the local constabulary to the station to answer questions, you would never have
convincing answers for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And
indeed, that is the quandary, you never got the name of the stranger, he offered
no personal details apart from the soothing repartee that eased you gently out of
the suspicious and cautionary into the trusting and persuaded, by a total
stranger who could easily have been a ghoulish apparition from the city
graveyard donning flesh and apparel for the night, just returning from whatever
meetings the dead attend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Always
see strangers at night as strange<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yes,
I am totally wary of strangers in the dead of the night, striking up
conversation with them is something I so totally avoid even as I could be
already backslapping strangers in the daytime after a few minutes of engagement.
The most I would aver is to tell the time when asked and at a good arm’s length
away.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
cannot say if the man did get to change his $100 bill before the breaking of
the dawn, but what coursed through my mind was the need to have the presence of
mind not to even countenance the thought of exchanging money for strangers,
give them something for an urgency, if that is the case, but if you at all
listen to the tales and get carried away in the moment that your vanity trammels
reason and good sense to assume you are qualified to undertake that
transaction, I’ll like to hear that your story is nothing like that worst case
scenario I allowed my thoughts to drift to, such that my appreciation of the
innate goodness of strangers and humanity is ever so slightly hit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This
could easily have been another <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/search?q=coronavirus+streets+of+Manchester">Coronavirus
streets of Manchester</a> blog. It isn’t.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-81697854048179979152024-01-30T09:52:00.005+00:002024-03-08T12:39:49.031+00:00The low cost of a locust fib<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">A new locust menu</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The bizarre is something you cannot
begin to understand, it is like a tale you heard on the grapevine. Peeping at
me through a phone screen was a head ahead of its game in fantabulous stories
that astound beyond the reach of sitting at the feet of a vizier raconteur
regaling us with tales in the Arabian Nights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The baldie suffering in the African
sun, weeding and tending his plants was overwhelmed by a swarm of locusts that
had no appetite and thankfully so for his crops, they had acquired a taste for
hair and those with non-black highlights too.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">They stripped his scalp of every
strand that he looked like he had just left a side-street Thai massage parlour
that offers Brazilian waxes of places nether and places obvious.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">That is his story, and this is for the
record.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-82917678250158595862024-01-29T13:15:00.004+00:002024-03-08T12:40:08.952+00:00Lazy January is a call to change<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Resolved not to resolve</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I stopped making New Year’s
Resolutions quite a while ago, not out of the lack of discipline to stick to a
resolution but for the fact that the self-flagellation that follows any such
decision is more brutal and guilt-ridden than necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Whilst times, dates, and seasons offer
much to reflect on and deliberate with some self-awareness of the lacking and
the possible, any day can be chosen to resolve to do anything without becoming
a hostage to fortune.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">For instance, some people have attached themselves to the <a href="https://alcoholchange.org.uk/help-and-support/managing-your-drinking/dry-january">Dry
January</a> campaign, the resolve to keep the month alcohol-free until I saw
some making exceptions for one thing or the other, and soon, the dry had become
wetter than a fish in water. Exceptions and adjustments matter in terms of the
inadvertent or the unexpected, the ability to accommodate variance makes for a better-rounded
personality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Stepping off the steps<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">However, it was when I checked my
Huawei Health app to see if I was doing something as regularly as I had
somewhat thought of doing but in the review was hardly even getting anywhere that I
realised I have had a Lazy January. I had only exceeded 10,000 steps twice in
the month, I could not bear to step on the weighing scales to see the numbers
and I have gained a bit more to the circumference of my midriff as my belt
would appear to suggest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">This is not what I expected as I had
reached my lowest weight in over a decade just some 4 months ago. I have to do
better, as my resting heart rate has increased and my blood pressure is reading
numbers I have not seen in a while. Just some exercise should fix that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My maternity issues again<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The other cause for concern is anaemia
because of Vitamin B12 and folate deficiency (Yes, we all need folic acid, not
just pregnant women.), this is something that appeared in the bloodwork from
about 5 years ago. Not enough of it is getting in from my diet and the risk of
peripheral neuropathy with its otherworldly feel is so strange. The feeling of intense pain at the back of the hand with numbness in the phalanges, and yet
you can move your fingers with all dexterity, I might just give my doctor a call
for injections instead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">One thing I have meditated about and
quite resolved to do is to get back to walking again. Any dog that dares to
approach me I will rebuke in the name of Jesus, I have no time for being nice
to dogs out of control. Those who as I saw this morning seem to think their XL
Bully dogs do not need to be on a leash and muzzled as the law requires are
soon to have a tragedy of many proportions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Let’s get to being fitter and
healthier, for no other reason than it gladdens the heart, and you feel hale
and hearty. We are consigning both the Dry and the Lazy January to the dustbin
of irrelevance. Just be good to yourself loving yourselves each day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Related Blogs<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2003/12/resolutions-unlimited.html">Resolutions
unlimited</a> (December 2003)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2007/01/happy-new-year-2007_01.html">Happy New
Year - 2007</a> (January 2007)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2008/01/new-years-considerations.html">New Year's
Considerations</a> (January 2008)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;">Blog - <a href="https://www.akinblog.nl/2017/06/folate-i-must-lactate-i-cant.html">Folate,
I must, lactate, I can't</a> (June 2017)</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3540911873094895295.post-86811401779884386582024-01-26T08:47:00.004+00:002024-03-08T12:41:05.620+00:00Childhood: How fostering or adoption shaped us<p><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Children assuaging
parenting yearning</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It is the
dichotomy of perception between privilege and deprivation that at this end of viewing
things almost allows for the manifest evil of the past to be excused as a
function of those times.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">What is
rarely considered is how singularly or even more certain experiences have
shaped character, shifted identity, and quite possibly left one fortunate, there
are positives and negatives, both of which need to be explored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">At the onset,
after reading about adoptions instigated from the Netherlands for presumed
orphans from Bangladesh against whom paperwork suggested tragedy or adversity,
the apparently falsified documentation has been exposed as such.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The adoptees are
now finding out they have or had parents, siblings, and relationships from
which they were extricated for the market satisfaction (it had to have money
involved, a kind of transaction that everyone deigns to forget) of the craving
for parenting in the West. [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/26/the-stranger-across-from-me-was-my-sister-how-one-adoptee-uncovered-a-tragic-past">The
Guardian: The stranger across from me was my sister: how one adoptee uncovered
a tragic past</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Every kind
of living away from kin<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It is in a
spectrum, some situations not as bad as others in adoptions, fostering with the
extreme case of farming, childminding, care homes, or orphanages, if I were to
limit the scope of the options available for caring for children over a generation
ago. [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/15/farmed-black-children-fostered-white-families-uk">The
Guardian: ‘Farmed’: why were so many Black children fostered by white families
in the UK?</a>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The enthusiasm
with which I started to write soon was overwhelmed by the gravity of the
matter, it cannot be captured in a single story, rather, it is the bringing
together of many experiences that can begin to create a picture of what really
went on. I decided to press on if only to start a conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The
privilege over deprivation construct<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I remember a
friend on a walk around the shores of the lagoon bordering the University of
Lagos saying to me that those of us born abroad just seem to have a daring and
boldness that others do not naturally exhibit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">In myself,
when I was in Nigeria, I suppose there were exhibitions of precociousness,
questioning, challenge, and fearlessness that might have set me apart, at
times advantageous, especially in expressing oneself but could be disadvantageous
in not understanding norms, values, traditions, or the culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">“<i>As an
adoptee you often hear, ‘You’re lucky, now you have a good life.’ But you
cannot really compare the two</i>,” says Kana. “<i>In one sense I feel lucky
that I have the best of both worlds. But nothing makes up for the loss you had
to endure. Because I lost my family and my real identity</i>.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/26/the-stranger-across-from-me-was-my-sister-how-one-adoptee-uncovered-a-tragic-past">Kana
Verheul in the article</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My father
would say, “<i>You have always thought like a westerner</i>.”, my brother did
say in passing, “<i>You are not one of us</i>.” The fact is I belonged without
actually belonging. The sanguineous ties are pulled asunder by other influences
that in the experience of life can make us such radically different people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The boy
was starved<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My parents as
students in England had me quite early in many ways, I arrived 10 weeks
prematurely, which meant for survival I was in incubation in another city for
over 2 months. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Then
primarily, my father was here for his accountancy qualifications and my mother
had to work and, in the process, get an education too, not necessarily
encouraged by him, at least, that is the story I am told.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">My mother
travelled around England into Wales seeking the appropriate kind of family to
care for me whilst they were busy trying to better themselves. I cannot
remember any of the people I supposedly stayed with, we called them nannies, but all the times I had with
my parents in that childhood along with their friends and the siblings of their friends who were babysitters, I seem to recall.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">One narrative
I heard from my mum was on a visit back home from my foster parents, I was
sneaking out to the refrigerator to steal food. She caught me a few times and
could not understand why I would be stealing food until she found out that my
wonderful foster parents were starving me. And these were people paid for the
service, it was not a charity mission.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Radical
consequences of childhood experiences<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The
consequences of the fear of hunger registered and were impactful long after we
returned to Nigeria, and I was living with my parents along with having house
helps to manage things when they were away. I do remember snatching food out of
lunch boxes of fellow students, in fact, there were a few of us that did that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Indeed, on balance,
my whole life has been a wonderful experience marked by interesting events and
circumstances. There are very many character traits and inflexions I could
almost definitely trace to something that happened in my childhood, some of
which I have written about in my blogs. I do need to get a move on with my story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">However, what
is evident from many of the stories people are sharing is the illegality and
criminality that thrived in the trading of children for different levels of
convenience in the view that the children were being given a better life to the
exclusion of an environment that would give them an identity or present them
with a serious identity crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Finding
our way regardless<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">We almost
always faced some sort of discrimination because of differences, however, minute
and I recall the time a slow development of my motor skills left me not as
agile as one would expect someone of my age it annoyed my dad and he
coined a phrase for it that suggested a kind of impairment, someone at school
somewhat deduced I was prematurely born and decided to make fun of me, he never
did again, after I was finished. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Concerning the topic in discussion, it was my accent that set me apart as probably
those of a mixed-race provenance would have been, then talk of brown babies or
children in largely white neighbourhoods and schools. At home or abroad and
there was no clear definition of either, you tried to fit in, you could not
account for the cards you were dealt, you played the game you were in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Closure for
many would simply be coming to terms with who they are, and possibly finding
out about relationships they never knew they had. It is unlikely that any of
the people who were involved in the abuse of the children would ever see
justice, even if they are still alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/farming">British Council:
Farming (film)</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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Jos - Memories of a child</a></span></span></p>Akin Akintayohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254117443398207562noreply@blogger.com0