HUMAN BEINGS AS ANIMALS

BY: Lubnah Abdulhalim

Photo Courtesy: Salem_Beliegraphy

A bird wakes up very early in the morning without any idea what to eat or where to find the food, but they have three aspects in their minds. First, they have the certainty that they will find food for themselves and their young ones and they have faith that God has a plan for them. Second, they have the will power to rise up early in search for food. Lastly, they have the aspect of hard work in them that makes them fly all day long for food. They come back to their nests in the end of the day with their stomachs full, together with their young ones and yet still have no idea or plan where they will get food for tomorrow. That is what we can call; HOPE.An early bird catches a worm; this truly justifies the kind of lives we human beings should comply with but unfortunately a vast number of human wait for the silver platter.

A baobab tree is believed to be one of the strongest species of trees that can live hundreds of years but termites with their aspect of unity bring down the tree.

Alongside with other types of animals and insects who work hard in getting what they need in terms of food, water and other things,  there are those animals that have great hard work but zero effort. Example is of the kind of ants that keep crawling around the mouth of a traditional pot, in pursue of what is inside of the pot but they end up going round and round the same circumference. Their hard work is great but they have no effort to get down inside the pot.

Parasites are many; those depending on other species to acquire their needs. An example is that of the ticks who keep depending on their hosts, each day moving from one host to another.

Nonetheless, there are animals that are lazy. Waiting for their food to appear right in front of their eyes is when they put that little effort to get hold of the food. This is exactly the same thing that happens in human beings. There are human beings who are like the bird, they believe, put in effort and venture out blindly without knowing what exactly they will find, but they have hope that their hard work will due be paid by God.

And just like the termites, we have the people or communities who work together in solidarity and thus they always are successful in what they do. They share ideas, help each other, support each other and the beauty of it all is that this shared efforts bring about love and harmony within the community.

The ant-like human beings are those that work hard but yet have no focus towards what they really want.  It reminds me of a character by the name Popo in the book ‘Miguel Street’ in my university course who was a carpenter. He was always busy with the woods and one could see him really working and yet whenever he was asked what he was making, he would say ‘I am making the thing without a name.’ Popo ended up making nothing out of his hard work.

The parasites in human beings are so many. You could find a man lying in bed all day long hoping that food would get to him like manna or depending on his wife to go out and work and feed him and the family instead. Others are those that seat idle in the ‘maskani’ and whining all day that they got no jobs. Now how will you get the job if you don’t search for it? Others sit on the streets begging while others depend on their brothers to satisfy their needs and wants.

God brought us animals so they may be a teaching to us and so we may learn from their living. So in what category are you? The early bird, the confused ants, the termites or the parasites and the lazy ones? Think about it and learn to change accordingly. We only reap what we sow and where there is a will there is a way.