Thought Picnic: And we all were not Will Smith at the Oscars

We all have opinions

I have read with interest the many fanciful and interesting ideas and notions of people who with the benefit of hindsight and the ample opportunity for reflection would have done something differently well away from the heat of the moment when presented with circumstances that demand immediate response for which limited restraint is possible.

It reminds me of many football fans who with the benefit of panoramic views of a stadium and sight of literally all angles come to the conclusion that a footballer who has through dint of hard work and recognition of coach and peers has earned their place by virtue of talent and ability to be in that team. We forget that the person is limited to their span of vision in that setting trying to assess and respond to situations happening to and around them to find advantage for themselves and the team whilst seeking to disadvantage the opposing players and still contribute to winning the match.

Rarely the real perspective

If a footballer had the range of vision of television camera or a spectator with the kind of full anticipation of the pace and the direction of the game, we probably would be watching a different kind of football. If anything, it shows how penalty kick deciders are more than just being able to kick a ball into the net at close range, the tension, the expectation, the anticipation, and most evidently luck plays increasingly important parts in a goal being scored or the ball being saved.

A recently globally televised altercation of a rather insensitive joke made in ribaldry, to shock and amuse was met with a necessary whilst unfortunate rebuke in defence of a spouse whose partner might have been urged by her apparent discomfiture to act quite decisively to put an end to such levity. You can make jokes of anything, and yet, courtesy demands that some courtesy, sensitivity, and understanding be paid to difficult situations or unfortunate infirmities, you do not have to disgusting.

That we blab from our armchairs

To make jokes at the expense of race, disability, or sexuality would be so readily frowned upon and excoriated with the heaping of opprobrium on the joker. That we would readily accept a joke at the expense of a person who has lost a particular expression of their personality and beauty due to a condition that cannot be arrested and managed is to lose a certain sense of perspective.

Now, this is not an excuse for violent retribution, but we should be careful that we do not from our suitable armchairs of comfort be so conveniently positioned for unencumbered postulation, ruling the world on our ample backsides with opinions of idealistic but usually impossible to live realities. How we all would have acted with wit, restraint and the wherewithal to cool our tempers in the heat of the moment, as we are the epitome of the best manners and perfection. You never have to walk a long hard mile in anyone's shoes when you're sitting down.

Thought Picnic: Collecting moments that appreciate

Recollecting moments

A lull in blogging lasting almost 3 weeks is not the absence of anything to write or say. A lot has been going on in my little corner of the world, stories and events shared with people I am close to and those who have recently become friends.

Being away from home for work, barely having enough to get by, successes in thorny situations, affirmation coming from peers and much else, all appear to give meaning, purpose and vitality to life and living.

Appreciating moments

Then October has also become a stranger month, of the celebrations of many births and the solemnity in the remembrance of a passing to the Great Beyond. All this together just created a sense of withdrawal and disinterest, the urge that fuels the need to write completely diminished that apart from November last year, you have to go back to some months in 2005 to see a less prolific blogging activity.

Even realising this, it is probably the first time I have not been overcome with angst about my quietness, days have come and gone as lived experiences without the distraction of needing to capture it for posterity. Sometimes, the experience matters more than the record, the memory is simply enriched with that moment.

We are blessed with the moment, let those moments not be lost to needless distractions.

Thought Picnic: Hold back reflex as you reflect for love

Moments to reflect

A teaching moment, a humbling moment, an understanding moment and a compassionate moment.

That is what I have desired that we take away from certain experiences of life when we look at the cards we have been dealt that do not look like we would walk off with the pot.

More often than not, we do not win the jackpot much as we participate in the lottery, we hope we have picked the right numbers but the picking of the winning numbers is completely out of our control.

It is then left to luck, good fortune, favour, blessing, chance or any convenient description of how opportunity and timing coincide to create advantage and gain.

The reflex to moments

The moments described above require patience and reflection, reflection desires that whatever we have determined to say or do be delayed to have a broader perspective especially when that perspective does not agree with us.

Yet you find many who have charted a different course, they find their greatest expression in a rude moment, an abusive moment, a dishonest moment, a disingenuous moment, an expletive-laden moment, a belittling moment, an unreasonable moment, an uncharitable moment and a hateful moment.

Their capacity to demonstrate this with a knack of genius and experience would make them icons of intemperance and much as you might be tempted to respond in like manner or take the high moral ground, the best thing to do is to ignore them.

Rethink the act

For a person who seeks to learn can be taught and in being taught is humbled into realising that a wider and diverse world of life, perspective, opinions, experiences and knowledge exists beyond them.

This brings understanding to reason and being reasonable, in which one can then find the bowels of compassion to engage with others; that is the essence of our humanity.

That is why I love about those who take the moments to reflect over those who seize the moment for reflex.

Thought Picnic: Cometh the moment

Unable because he could not

When Yakubu Aiyegbeni missed that shot [1] for an open goal in the Nigeria v South Korea World Cup march, I believe I was one of the few who could really understand what had really happened.

It was not that Mr. Aiyegbeni was not a fantastic footballer but that the unfortunate and inevitable ravages of the length of existence on earth had impacted on his agility and reflexes when opportunity demanded of them most.

For a sportsman, Mr. Aiyegbeni is extremely fit for his age and quite a envy of any of his real peers but between the reality and the legality of what he portends to be, he can attract both sympathy and derision – on that day, the moment came for the man to be there but he could not be there to seize it.

Unable because he did not

Yesterday, the hopes of the whole of Africa fell on the ability of Ghana to make history in their game against Uruguay.

Regardless of the dishonest activities of the Uruguayan player, they were presented with the golden opportunity in the dying minutes of the game to seize the moment, a penalty following the sending off of a player for handling a ball that was destined for the goal.

A cool and collected player knowing what was at stake could have shrugged off the weight of expectation and done what is usually expected of a penalty kick – sink it into the back of the net and receive the laurels of glory from that day henceforth.

Asamoah Gyan stepped up [2] to take the last kick of the march and sent it to the bar, bad luck, tough luck or lacking a sense of the moment – the rest is history, Uruguay went on to take the march in a penalty shoot-out.

That was not the moment

Mr. Gyan, who eventually scored a penalty during the shoot-out must have thought he had redeemed himself but really when the moment came, he was not there and having another opportunity is not necessarily passing the test of the original moment.

It then the makes you wonder how the moment came for the continent of Africa to host the World Cup and 6 African countries had the moments of their footballing representation to send the word out that we had arrived.

It would appear Africa had just been hired to host the World Cup jamboree and we are nowhere near where recognition can have its due significance matched with results.

On reflection with sadness

It saddens me to recall a few lines from what Lord Lugard said of Africans [3] almost 90 years ago in his book, The Dual Mandate - His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past … He lacks the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business; he loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility; he will work hard with a less incentive than most races … He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue.

In conclusion, this is what was probably the most interesting - Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his lack of ability to visualize the future.

Cometh the moment...

Without contention, some teams really did put their backs in it with very little reward for their pains, a football team requires most of all, organisation; the coach can only do so much from the side-lines, the team must work as one.

Did Ghana not exhibit the courage of a fighting animal but somewhere in the scheme of things which might have included not practising spot kicks, the future was not visualised and when the moment came, history was made for entirely the wrong reasons.

There are many perspectives to these events and this might be one of the least charitable of them all, but well, that is just the way things are – these thoughts were inspired by a conversation with a friend.

Cometh the moment but where is the man?

Sources

[1] YouTube - Nigeria vs. South Korea- Yakubu Aiyegbeni misses shot, makes penalty kick

[2] Asamoah Gyan will never forget his missed penalty in the World Cup for Ghana | The Sun

[3] Introducing the Apes Obey! Series [akin.blog-city.com]