It’s A Hard Knock Life For Us…

I’m back again with my “weird” thoughts. Are you ready for the spill? Ready or not, I’m spilling anyway.

I had just had my night bath, and was using my deodorant that smells like a blend of exotic flowers, just for the sake of smelling nice. And I thought, “it would be nice to actually have a fragrance unique to me alone, like flowers” (let’s all pretend we don’t know most flowers smell like God-forbid). Then I went farther to think of the kind of flower I’d be, if I were to be one.

Now, here’s where the real gist starts– That’s how my mind travelled back to certain events and times when I’d wish I was something else , other than a human, like days when my gender and the other gender won’t stop their endless and sometimes meaningless war; or days when the amount of evil in the world overwhelms me.

While most, think animals, trees and other objects have life easier for them, you may want to listen to what I have to say, and tell me afterwards, if you still think the same way.

Has it ever occurred to you that animals have their own personal and “family” problems to think of too? Animals, like us, do not always have things easy; they starve, they look for food, and they fight one another to get it, when it’s in limited supply; they call it survival of the fittest in Biology. Most animals are hustlers, come sunshine or rainfall, they’re hustling. Most don’t even have proper shelter. You may want to argue that they’re animals and were built for suffer-head, I’ll let you have that.

There’s also this constant fear of the unknown. Let’s use birds– fowl, as our case study. You see how they jump out of their feathers, at the slightest noise, especially hens with chicks. Why the constant fear? Of course, it’s cos of the predators year and dear (here and there). There’s the hawk to worry about, there’s the dog, not to mention the slick snake, and many others. And there’s us too! You didn’t think I would forget. Right?

Sadly for them, It’s that time of the year, where many are victims of our cravings. May their souls, undeserving of such cruelty, rest in peace.

You know, I honestly can’t stand the sight of animals being slaughtered, but I pretend to have amnesia, when it’s time to consume the final product. I’m sorry, I love meat too much to not take part in such grave sin. Being vegetarian has crossed my mind several times, considering the fact that I’m a big fan of veges, and fruits too, but e go hard o. I’m sure the souls of the departed animals, slaughtered for my sake, will understand; man must chop.

If we must be fair, we shouldn’t be eating plants too. They too, are living things, remember? Difference is, they don’t have blood and they aren’t mobile. So las las, all of us are murderers. That leaves you with no right to judge me.

I am still giving you reasons why I think animals don’t have life easier, right? Okay.

While it may seem like animals have a shorter life span than humans, have you ever stopped to think that a month to us might be equivalent to a year to them? So you can’t really say they’re quickly relieved of their sufferings, compared to humans that have to deal with it for many years, especially when suicide isn’t an option.

Excuse you, if you’re thinking “oh, they don’t have to deal with pressure or harassment from men” or “there’s no pressure on them to be macho and to impress na,” my dear! Think again, or better still, find yourself some goats and fowls, and observe them for a week. I assure you, you won’t think the same again.

There are a whole lot of other things, including those I’m not aware of, because I can’t observe them all and because I’m not an animal, so I can’t exactly think like them. I can only imagine.

I remember little curious me always observing those big brown ants on fruit trees; soldier ants, with the ones with very big heads positioned in front and at the back of the long lines; butterflies competing with flowers; earthworms wiggling (though the sight nauseated me. Still does); snails shying away from a touch; real life glow-in-the-dark– fireflies, lighting up the night;… I can go on and on. These things fascinated me.

There were times I told God I’d love to be an ant for a day, hoping he’d really answer, cos you know, nothing is too insignificant or impossible for him. Why the stupid wish? I really just admired how they cooperated and looked out for one another. How an ant would go get help for an injured or dead ant, with so much anxiety and panic. How they weren’t selfish, and would call out to other ants excitedly, at the sight of their daily bread or in some cases, manner from heaven. I really wanted to be them for a day; to see what their house underneath the ground looked like. Did they have duplexes? Did they have bedrooms, storage rooms, sitting rooms, and dinning rooms like us– humans? Did they have estates and palaces? Was there a social class? How deep was the hole in which they built their homes? Was it close to hell fire?

One day, I woke up, and didn’t want that anymore, cos I thought, what if I got killed as an ant, the day I become one. What would my poor mother do? Who would tell my story? That was when I stopped really wishing to be any other thing or person that isn’t me. Note that I said “stopped really wishing”, not like I totally stopped wishing. I still do, it’s just never that serious.

I was one hell of a curious child, and I can’t really say I’ve changed much– but this isn’t the point here. Don’t lose concentration.

With these few points of mine, I hope I’ve been able to convince, and not confuse you, that animals, plants and others, have life just as hard, if not harder. Wahala for who refuse to get convinced o, and wahala for who confuse.

Drop your comments and tell me what you think…

PS: Being a bush plant must be hard; all that feces and rubbish flung at them, shotput style… They don’t even eat meat! Oh. They do, but never mind… I don’t envy them one bit.