BY: Lubnah
Abdulhalim
HUMAN BEINGS AS
ANIMALS
 |
| Photo Courtesy: Salem_Beliegraphy |
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 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.
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.
