Life 101 or Como Todo Sobre......

Sometimes the hardest thing in life is knowing which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.And sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.if it simply comes all in the beginning it wouldn't be better. Deep huh.... I found this as a draft of a post that i started writing a few years ago and as much as i have a great memory (my friends call it elephant), i don't recall what i was thinking about or even why i abandoned it halfway. But since i started it and it was such a good beginning, it would be a shame not to complete it. Yesterday i left class in the evening, one of those classes where the lecturer is pretty cool and has a way of bringing to life whatever she is teaching and it was on family communication, which was pretty interesting considering that in church we have just finished a sermon series on generations, which is on family. So i got into a matatu immediately which is not often the case simply cz i never see the need to allow myself to be overcharged when all am doing is going home. This means that i will often join the crowd of many Kenyans who like me are willing to take part in a very 'Kenyan' habit of waiting for a certain amount of time for the fares to drop. For any of you who may be unaware of what i am talking about, fares will often drop after a certain time, so most people will wait until that time in order to save those coins. I often look at the rest of the people at the stage, most of whom left the office at 5 pm and three hours later are still at the stage because of a fare increase of Kshs 20 and it makes me sad and mad at the same time. Mostly mad because i totally get it! how Kshs 20 can be the difference between you going home or not, mad because as part of the population in our country continue to live out the rap mantra of '50 Cent' "get rich or die tryin", the vast majority are stuck in poverty, where a fare increase by Kshs 20 may mean the difference between buying milk or getting home. But i digress, back to my original thought, so i got into a matatu, sat at the back which i usually avoid and this older gentleman sat next to me. I barely pay attention to those seated next to me, mainly because it's a thin line between staring and noticing your seat mate, so i usually limit myself to a general observation of the passengers as they board the vehicle if seated somewhere where that is possible without drawing some negative attention, and trying to see who chooses the seat next to me. So i noticed him as he was taking his seat and also due to the fact that he was eating roast maize which is the only thing i usually allow myself to eat from street vendors and even then it's always from the same vendor due to my hygiene phobias, though that is a story for another day. He sat down and even before we had left the bus termini, he had removed his phone. Snooping in someone's phone is something i never do, one because i am a firm believer in respecting other's privacy but also for a more practical reason, you might see something you wish you didn't as a friend once did and she was so disgusted, not to mention offended that she had to change seats immediately. i will leave it to your fertile imaginations to figure out what she saw. So the gentleman opens an app and it's noisy and i thought he was one of those people who put on loud music in public without caring about the needs of those around them, but i was wrong it wasn't music but an app for live TV and to be more surprising was what he was watching, which was the soap on Citizen TV. Yes, he was watching a soap and he did so intently that at some point, i stole a glance at him just to confirm that he was indeed watching it. His engrossed look said it all yet i couldn't understand how a man especially older as he, was interested in a soap. Maybe its the same way that others cannot understand how others, myself included can play candy crash. To each his own yet all through the trip all i could think about was this man not only enjoys soaps but he went ahead to get an app to ensure that he never missed an episode. This made me think of how our local stations all screen soaps at the same time and i suspected the women in his life were probably hooked on soaps and lacking an option he got interested and voila! got hooked. Many Kenyan men complain about the soaps they are forced to watch but i wonder how many of them secretly enjoy it! Now as i write this another thought crosses my mind of how much energy we expend on trivial things yet we ignore the more important things. Those that cannot fade but which endure..