The sheer humanity of Cecil and Wilhelm

Destiny to an end

I found myself thinking about the men I wrote about in my blog yesterday and how men of destiny can be undone by the uncertainties and the inadequacies of our humanity. Something to reflect on, if only to put things in perspective about how to live life and relate to others.

There were just 6 years between the birth of Cecil John Rhodes and that of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the former, the 5^th son of a country clergyman and the latter, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the grandson of the first emperor of the German Empire and Queen Victoria, destined for the throne and the power that it portended.

Privilege and fortuitousness

Cecil John Rhodes was a sickly child sent to South Africa in the hope that it might help his health, he became a man of the right time in the right place when gold and diamonds were being discovered in large quantities in South Africa and by deft business acumen, political power and economic heft became one of the richest men in the world.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was a spoilt brat, the eldest of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren, but hardly well-liked for his demeanour, arrogance, megalomania, and self-belief that he was more capable than his ministers and diplomats. In time, his quest to expand his empire with the advent of WWI led to his forced abdication in 1918 and the end of the German Empire.

Our limitations as humans

Cecil John Rhodes could have been anything, he was ambitious if not power-drunk, and Mark Twain wrote of him saying, “he is the only unroyal outsider whose arrival in London can compete for attention with an eclipse.” [Mark Twain: Cecil Rhodes]

Yet, it is his health that failed him, for, at 48, he died with these words recorded from his lips, “So little done, so much to do.” Kaiser Wilhelm II was emperor for just over 30 years when he went into exile at Huis Doorn in The Netherlands where he lived another 23 years probably ruing the decisions that lost him the empire. A man who could only reminisce of the life and glory he once had when he died of a ripe old age of 82.

The dead stay dead

Kaiser Wilhelm II leaves a legacy of being the centre of WWI and presiding over the falling of the major monarchies of mainland Europe, he lies in repose in a mausoleum built by his exiled residence at Huis Doorn.

Cecil John Rhodes, the imperialist and every other epithet he both deserves or not is the benefactor of the Rhodes Scholarship and many memorials to the whitewash and sterilised part of his biography. He lies under a slab of stone at Matopos Hills in Zimbabwe at a place he called World’s View.

Just a thought

You can have so much power and lose it, just as you can have so much money and not live to use it. Who would have thought a sickly child from the English countryside would rise to become one of the most powerful and richest men in the world?

Conversely, maybe Kaiser Wilhelm II might have sustained the German Empire and ruled for 53 years and taking the House of Hohenzollern into its 4^th Century of power, but he squandered what was bequeathed to him.

“The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” [Bible Gateway: Psalms 103:15-16 (NIVUK)]

Blog - Huis Doorn (1999), Rhodes Cottage (2019)

Decade Blogs - Henry 'O'Jew' Olamiju - Greatness - A Life Waiting Us

Decade Blogs

Henry 'O'Jew' Olamiju is one of those who after sneezing you might find yourself enviously failing to say, ‘Bless you’, to, because he is blessed, with looks, with wit and is a doctor too.

Devilishly handsome and spoken for besides other things I am privy to, he is one with who a conversation on Twitter is such great fun, enlightening, humorous whilst quite serious too.

His blog for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging deals with settling for where we are or aiming for greatness and what it takes to get there, if we do make way for such a destiny.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

He pens his blogs at www.gushingflow.wordpress.com and regales us with fantastic tweets using the Twitter handle @holamiju – Enjoy …

GREATNESS – A Life Waiting Us

“If this letter falls into your hands, think carefully about what it says. By my birth I rank above you, but don’t be afraid of my greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Your fate awaits you. Accept it in body and spirit. To get used to the life you’ll most likely be leading soon, get rid of your low-class trappings. Show some eagerness for the new upscale lifestyle that’s waiting” – Malvolio (Modern rendition of Twelfth Night)

These words from Shakespeare have been quoted severally and are often used by many as though greatness is the exclusive preserve of a handful of people. What it did not say (and rightly so) however is that there are those who can never be great. If all of us cannot be born great like Prince William, and if all of us cannot have greatness thrust upon us like our current president in Nigeria, then we must realise that all of us (who desire and pay the price) can actually achieve greatness.

Great oaks from little acorns grow. The tiniest of seeds has within it the genetic constitution required to make it grow into a full plant. It requires no help from anybody when it comes to the strict dictates of becoming what it is destined to become. All it needs sometimes is just to find the right environmental conditions to favour its growth and yes, it would blossom.

Humans seem to be the only species of organisms in the world that have to be taught how to be itself. Most, if not all other, organisms just be. From the moment they are born or shed as a fruit, the organism just pursues its life-long destiny of becoming. Man, however just try to become like.

We have become ‘settlers’. We settle for whatever comes our way instead of demanding – through hard work and patience – what our harnessed potentials deserve. We see people settling for an image of themselves much below what their potential suggests. We see music stars settling for the easy way out in releasing club bangers instead of music that would distinguish them from others.

We settle for hand-outs from the government instead of creating value for ourselves and following our passion. We have become professional settlers. If blogging is the new thing, we blog; if social media activism, we rant; if run-of-the-mill raunchy music lyrics and videos, we shoot, if Diversity visa, we apply... the list is endless.

What we have forgotten is that each one of us has a uniqueness that stands us out, specific features that distinguishes us. We cringe and hide our small candle lights in the face glowing stars, we shut our voices when loudspeakers (overlords, so-called opinion leaders, godfathers etc.) are blaring, we switch off our brains when ‘anointed’ (pastors, imams, godfathers etc.) tell us what to do. We just settle.

Settle for the seen rather than the unseen realities within us, settle for cash instead of value, settle for temporary pleasures rather than enduring treasures, settle for new-age feudalism rather than true democracy, settle for a mention and or a ‘follow back’ instead of writing your way into history. We know how to settle for easiness rather than pursue greatness, such greatness that is already growing within.

I am reminded of a true story which has been made into a movie. It is the story of the American Gangster [Adapted from Frank Lucas’ The Return of Superfly]. He worked as a pimp for a drug lord on the streets of Harlem; served as bodyguard, errand boy, butler, shoe shiner and so on. He got to a point in his life that he asked himself a question, what will I get from this life as a pimp? He realised no matter how close to the boss he was, he was never going to be a drug boss because the boss’ children got all the attention they needed.

One day, he got out of the system (how he did this, I don’t know); went to his house and took out all electronics and pictures and stuff from his room and sat there for about a week or two drinking only water and just thinking. No phone calls, no parties, no ‘Friday-out-with-the-boys’, no television. Within those two weeks he, thought back into his childhood (a process called back-tracking) and recollected all the times he did really smart things and people commended him.

After about two weeks, he happened on an idea that got him to perfect how to run a drug-ring without being caught or even suspected by police or even the neighbours. If you’ve watched the movie, you know he got caught because of things related to his cousin and his wife’s gift of an exotic fur coat. When he was caught, he had two hundred and seventy million dollars at home because he could not deposit the money at the bank because of the tax people.

This guy rose from being a pimp to being a drug lord by choosing greatness rather than settling for something less. The only thing he knew as an adult was drugs and so his thoughts led him to do something drug-related. If he had gone to school and become an accountant or an economist, imagine the genius he would have exhibited in providing scarce commodities to the end-user without any distribution issues?

The truth about the matter is that there is a genius in all of us; if you judge a fish by its inability to hop from tree to tree, or an elephant by its inability to swim, both will live their lives like failure – like most of us do. We should know that a child that is dyslexic can grow up to be a great world-renowned performer like Brad Little of the Phantom Of The Opera fame; someone who can’t see can become the world’s greatest concert pianist and a child who doesn’t like mathematics doesn’t have be forced to become an engineer. Imagine forcing a Lionel Messi while growing up to do Literature for homework and enrolling him for law in a university?

You don’t plant an acorn and go back to check if it has started growing or tell it when to develop roots and how long the roots should be. By nature, that acorn will grow when it feels the moisture of the soil and perceives the heat from the sun. Before you know it, it will sprout from the ground and shoot up tender branches without any help from any external matter. What we should do to our talents and potential is to find the appropriate conditions that will enable us ‘effortlessly’ release our genius quality.

We can stop following the crowd and yes, we can stop settling.

As I close, I like to remind us of Marianne Williamson’s words:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Uncle Akin stands out with consistency, tact and wisdom. Ten years of blogging and these years I have come to know you on Twitter reinforce my conviction that there’s a wisdom that comes with age. Thank you for being so brotherly and I am honoured to be able to contribute this small piece to celebrate your decade of blogging.

Thought Picnic: Winning the battle of ifs

Unrefined

The thoughts in this blog are still unravelling, the words working into a framework and yet without a clear indication of what the structure will be. One of those ones.

Friends

I was speaking to a friend of 27 years standing yesterday [The use of 'standing' is more Nigerian-English parlance for stress and emphasis in speech.], and I mean a friend, one who just about knows enough of my deep secrets to keep them safe regardless of what happens to us or between us.

Yes, I have that kind of friendship and only three people stand in the place, the stature, the element and the knowledge of what is the I of me. I cherish them for they are the winds beneath my feeble wings.

Struggles

As we conversed, I told him of the many things I have been doing to match up; interviews I have attended and stuttered in, stumbled through or flunked badly, seemed to reveal personal inadequacies of knowledge, depth, ability or experience, many of which I was struggling to fix or patch up with limited success – I’ve been running out.

Out of steam, out of ideas and still juggling balls of doubts and fears in the swirling winds of worry and anxiety, this all requires an intervention.

The intervention came in the words of my friend, he reminded me that there is no job I have ever embarked on, no matter how challenging that I have not performed well in – that is true.

Chance

There are jobs where at interview I have been promoted to a higher role for the depth of knowledge or wealth of experience I had, but not in that particular activity or use of certain sets of tools in the job specification, I found favour and they were favourable towards me.

Whilst ability is important, my friend indicated that I may not or will not get through on ability alone and what matters might come down to likeability, favourability, maybe personality or amiableness.

Chance is opportunity and timing meeting at the point of access and before me is an open door where many before have been closed.

Faith

I remember my toughest battles and realise that I have thrived the most when I have let go. Buoyed on my faith and my beliefs, the times when I was weakest facing death are when I have accepted where I am to gain strength to move on and live.

Therefore, my friend was saying to my hearing words I have spoken to my many friends in their own difficult times, a healthy form of plagiarism, considering my recent blogs. For the biggest battle is in the mind and then in the mind-set – shift those mind-sets and things begin to shift, the sense of being overwhelmed lifts for you to latch onto the possibility of overcoming.

I must live full of gratitude and thankfulness for the many things that have become my story.

If

I was caught in a battle of personal ifs making me inadequate for challenges where I should use the divine knows to take me beyond my learnt and limiting limitations.

“If I could, I would, BUT I am, I can, I do, I will, I excel.” The 'BUT' in that quote is my struggle; it is the bridge most difficult to cross.

Whereas, that same bridge is sure, is strong and is built to withstand all influences, the first step and the next step, one after the other to the other side – I can, I have to regain the belief I can and go to do.

Favour

Favour and mercy – Finding approval of those who have the power to decide might partly result from your ability, but it is rarely as objective as that. The liking people might have towards you is the difference between being presentable, which is what you can do, and being acceptable which is their prerogative.

For those who believe, the variable that is not in your power to control is the one that either finds you helpless or the one where your prayer is to find favour and in finding favour you gain entry.

Trust

Know to commit, know to pray, and know to trust, for the one that trusts will find the wind that lifts beyond fears, doubts and anxieties to excel in courageous exploits.

I am a man of faith, I trust in God, where I have been weakest and unable to produce but realised that He is my rock, the fall is never to the ground to shatter into smithereens but into loving arms of assurance – He has got my back and this journey; I will come through with a better story. That is the power of hope above despair.

Thank you, God. “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do they will, O God).” Hebrews 10:7

There is a destiny to fulfil written to a script of assurances and promises, never inadequacies; that understanding is what I must gain and appreciate better. I am loved; I should begin to love myself more.

Thought Picnic: Challenging your destiny

It is not set in stone

As I watched television this evening, the NCIS episode came to an end and just before the credits rolled, I heard the words below:

“Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny cannot be changed, but it can be challenged. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.” - Martin Heidegger [Quotes]

This quote is complete as written and it provides ample material for meditation. What really jumped out at me from these words was this - Your destiny cannot be changed, but it can be challenged.

Under constant review

I presume we probably will never get a full vision or description of our destinies, but we are constantly challenging where we are for re-evaluation, reassessment, readjustment and realignment.

As we find that old ideas and tricks lose their efficacy in tackling new challenges, we must find the resource and means to reinvent ourselves, renew our minds, reform our perspectives and recognise the need to change.

Overcoming issues

This constant work of rediscovery and self-discovery is the wonder of our evolutionary growth in life and many other endeavours; we must however carry the greatest responsibility to discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and do well to overcome it, this is advice that Peter Drucker gave on the matter of managing oneself.

We all need to take the time out to manage our expectations and our reality whilst charting a course to new goals and for greater achievement. It is a challenge, and it is fun.