He was supposed to be one ‘surviving member’ of that species under threat of being pushed under the rug, or ,even worse, extinction… the nice and the humble-hearted species. You don’t hear much of it these days. You know, the sort of person one would enjoy to be with anytime anywhere; the type of guy you enjoyed being with because he makes the hopeless, Armageddon sort of scenarios as easy as child play. I mean the guy who leads you to browse articles about self-destruction but about self-preservation and perseverance giving one confidence of sailing against the waves however Biblical they might be. How we crave for such wonderful creations of nature!
Of course even the few remaining can’t escape the conspiracy theories against them as this has become a world which refuses to take them for what they actually are is always cooking up some ulterior motives for their humbleness and philanthropic spirit!
“The guy is playacting. He’s not as nice as he pretends to be!” Do you hear any concrete examples to support the claims? No; and mostly never!
“Ok can you tell me any concrete event or something like that which makes you arrive at such a conclusion?”
“But you don’t need examples!”
“Sorry, what’s wrong with asking for something to make me believe what you say?”
“I’m telling you there is no need of examples. It is written all over his forehead. Have you ever looked at his face as closely as you give your ears to every word he says?”
“Never thought of that and never had the reason to. But, you must probably have heard the proverb that you don’t judge a book by its cover!”
“In his case you do! To tell you the truth I never liked the guy!”
He should have told me that a little earlier. I might have saved some breath! Now you’ve seen nothing wrong about this guy. And you probably have known him for most of three decades. In fact he has become humbler by the day. But it doesn’t mean the fellow would never change! Changing one’s behavior and having concealed it for decades aren’t even the two sides of a coin.
Suddenly, something comes knocking his doors and the guy ceases being himself. I mean the ‘himself’ you knew. Well, as far as we’re concerned what he publicly displayed was what he is and there was no way we could go down any ‘conspiracy theory’ lane. But then most of the time there is something really serious to force him into such a complete turnaround. When it happens you the innocent aren’t taken of guard. That’s what happened to a fellow we know a few months back.
“You don’t seem well, is anything wrong.”
“Yes, something is wrong.”
One thing about this guy is that he never holds back anything he wants to say. It is right out of the box and in your face. The usual us would have responded to the “’…is anything wrong?” question with those weak words, “Oh no. nothing is wrong.” It’s only later we come out with the truth. So this guy goes on; “I hope you know so and so?” Yes he knows the lady. She has been the guy’s office mate for no less than a decade. And she is one hell of a wonderful woman who saves you from losing hope in all humanity.
“Yes I do. What happened to her?”
“Well that lady has become a completely different person.”
“What do you mean?”
“She stopped talking to the whole staff.”
“You mean including you…”
“I mean including me. Isn’t that some news!”
Her being the humblest of the fair sex it indeed is news. No one knows what has got into the lady. But the man tells our guy she seems to be amidst some serious problems. She has changed to the point where she has even started wearing that face of contempt to all around her.
However, what really is sad is those of us who spin all kinds of conspiracy theories on the good and innocent trying taking the life out of their well-regarded names. These days we hear so much of such stories we need to ear old-time prophecies and commercially spun predictions needn’t dry out for us to suspect the diminishing if not the end might indeed be coming to certain things; things like the simplest humility and good-heartedness.
All this with apology to the Euphrates! Oh yes; we’ll be watching it!
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 4 DECEMBER 2022