Runners On Your Mark - Istifanus Sarki

When you set a snail and a horse on a track for a hundred meter relay, the horse obviously wins the race. People give a standing ovation to the horse as it wags its tail and barks in victory. Yet I ask, who really won? Long after the race is won and done, and everyone is gone, the snail emerges at the victory line. Too late, it may seem, but hold on and let’s replay the video. 

When I took my time to imagine the race, it downed on me that if the horse ran the same relay a thousand more times at the same time, it still would not have won. Why? Firstly, when a dog runs, it jumps. Now, imagine how much space the horse must have skipped in the process of running.

Secondly, the horse outran the weather condition, the smoothness and roughness of the road to the winning line. Thirdly, the dog may go about boasting about how he outran the snail to be the first, but has little or no testimony or experience to share about what happened between the point where he took to his heels and the point where he won.

But the snail knows all this, because it crawled all the way, knowing the distance. It went through the scorching sun that hit the skin hard enough to turn to a shell and position himself like a hunchback; the angry rain that drained the snail and made the way slippery enough to sweep anyone off the road leading to his destiny. 

Sometimes, I watch the speed difference between that of a youth, and of an elder. Have you ever wondered why a youth runs, when an elder walks gradually, and yet the elder gets to the post before the youth? Is it magic? No. it’s simple.

When a youth runs, he runs so fast in life that he ends up not seeing the several ditches positioned around the road, and so he falls severally into the ditch. Before he finally recovers, comes out of the ditch, and retraces his steps, the elderly one had passed him.

Sometimes, it’s not necessarily a ditch, it could be the case that he gets to a junction in his life, and without careful scrutiny, he takes the wrong road and must have gone far before he realizes and then makes a U turn back to the junction before taking the right path – that is if he doesn’t take another wrong path again.

Race is not necessarily for the fastest, or the strongest. But for the wise, the humble and the patient`.

I gave two instances subsequently, of a horse and snail, and of a youth and an elder. What comes to your mind at the thought of those instances? A fascinating story? The two illustrations gives us a joint theme of patience and of course wisdom.

                         

Life itself is a race, and we must not let our own misfortune or lack of adequate preparation or carelessness paint itself as “bound-to-happen fate. No, if at all, it is a fate that is not necessary in the account of our race, and must be gotten rid of. Other methods have been used; others will still be used. But some things just never change. You will always need a ladder to heaven. Runners on your marks. Get set. Ready? Go!!!