When You Think Everyone Loves You
else and the person turns round to accuse you of being wicked. It so
happens that atimes, someone we have been good to accuses us wrongly
of being the cause of their problem.
It's happening all around us: in politics, religion, education, and
economics. Good intentions are often construed for selfishness. And
for good reasons too because as one African proverb says: it's not
kindness but the need for a clean mouth that prompts the hippopotamus
to open its mouth for birds to peck at.
So I make bold to say that the reason people don't love us as much as
we desire even with our professed altruistic purpose is basically
because they can sense the undercutting selfish interests beneath the
Greek offer. Examples from international politics are so many that I
don't know which to choose. They range from the interests of the West
in the Arab world to those of China in Africa and other developing
economies. They also include a cheating spouse's unending gifts and an
abusive parent's epileptic placatory overtures towards the child.
In deed, at other times, our good intentions are misconstrued as
either wickedness or exploitation. But what do we do in such
circumstances? Do we stop being good to people who have been entrusted
in our care? The answer is a capital NO! That our good hand of
fellowship extended towards someone is rebuffed does not mean that we
should develop a phobia for helping out when necessary.
What am I talking about? I wish I can say. I can't because it is the
to the work I do. And things are still very tense now and I need not
say what I shouldn't say now. Please, if you are one of my employers,
close your eyes to what you are reading or else ... just joking. But
seriously, don't get funny ideas.
Folks, everyone cannot like you. Do what you can and do not tire
yourself out trying to explain yourself especially to people who have
sworn never to understand you.
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