I was once rushed to
a hospital late in the night. I had serious diarrhoea and within a matter of
minutes I had emaciated and looked like a Somalian refugee. All I could hear
myself say was; “God, why me?”, because I could not figure out what was exactly
wrong with me. When I got to the hospital there was no doctor on duty but the
nurses managed to get me a bed and gave me drips.
The following morning
a nurse took my urine for a laboratory test. The result for the test for
released in the afternoon and the doctor examined it asked what I ate earlier
the day before. From his examination the cause of my illness was “food
poisoning” which was found in the last food I ate before going to the hospital.
I realized it was the “wakye” (a local Ghanaian delicacy prepared with rice and
beans and coloured leaves) I enjoyed in the afternoon on that faithful day. He prescribed some drugs after his examination.
Some years later I
thought of that incident and the word “poison” came to mind, so I decided to
look it up in a dictionary and I got this definition: Poison is any substance
that usually kills, impairs, or injures organisms or something destructive or
harmful. After reading this, I began to think that I could have died from that
food poisoning. One thing that also came to mind was the fact that if one takes
in anything, be it food in liquid or solid form and the food contains any
substance that can harm or cause the body to malfunction can be determined as
poisonous.
Thanks to science and
technological advancement poison in whatever form can be detected through a
laboratory test. However there are yet some poisons more harmful and deadly
that science and technology have not been able to provide the appropriate
technology for their detection and treatment. These poisons have destroyed many
lives, families, friendships, marriages, businesses among others.
These poisons are ANGER, BITTERNESS, and JEALOUSY (ABJ).
ABJ are the world’s
most deadly poisons that science has not yet discovered their cure. These
poisons are more fatal than venoms from plants, serpents, scorpions etc. ABJ
are a sudden keen displeasure aroused by injury or injustice and greed and are
usually accompanied by strong desire for vengeance or get even. They cloud our
sense of reasoning, fellow feeling and set us on the road to self destruction.
ABJ cause us to point
fingers at others when frankly speaking those fingers should be pointing to us
and because we find fault with other people, we plot to punish by any means
possible, to the extent of killing. We would always want to be on the same
level with our neighbours or be better than them because we feel and think they
are the reason we are where we are in life.
As all these self
annihilating actions, pursuits, and plans are not enough, we expend all energy
available to split families, set friend against each other, break marriages and
collapse businesses. We do all these for the reason that we are angry, bitter
and jealous in one way or the other.
I believe we can
construct meaningful lives irrespective of the hurt and unfair treatment meted
out to us by others. Instead of applying all our energies to fight back for all
the wrongs done us, we can focus all our efforts to LOVE and FORGIVE, for there
is more LIFE in loving when hurt than VENGEANCE.
If you forget that
“anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of certain income can indulge
(G. W Curtis)” please do well to remember that “the jealous man poisons his own
banquet and then eats it”.
J B ESHUN © 2011
