I came back into Nigeria yesterday, and I have been tongue and finger tied. When you learn too much in one doze, it can lead to intellectual constipation. In these kind of times, it pays to sit still for a while and let it all sink in. Afterall, it’s not what we learn that matters, it’s what we do with what we learn.
It’s been 9 days of interacting with nature and history! I’ve been around a few countries prior to now, my first visit to Dubai made me feel that Dubai was the ultimate tourist attraction from Africa to Asia, but the number of tourists I came into contact with in Egypt, is a record I’m not sure will be beaten in a long time! Whereas in Dubai the crowd clusters were in shopping malls, in Egypt people queued in front of Tombs, in front of Temples, Mosques, Churches and Museums. People paid, yesterday night I counted my own tickets, to learn about the past. American’s, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australians, all the continents were there, everybody taking out time to be on vacation, looking for something, asking questions, and where they were allowed, taking pictures.
I was able to get some quality time reflecting on a number of issues. About my life, about my country, about life, family, business, commerce, honor, achievement and all that a mortal wants to do before the bridge of death carries him on to the glorious hereafter. In my assessment, a good number of my role models in the Bible were in Egypt one time or the other. Abraham, Joseph, Isreal and Jesus. Egypt was a palace that God used to preserve them. Here a few thoughts I think is appropriate to further share from my little soujorn.
1. Think about Eternity: Life is short compared to eternity. What we do here on earth, will be judged, so love, honor and fear God and love your neighbour as yourself. This summarizes God’s requirments.
2. Act Today: Today’s acts are tomorrow’s stories, today’s acts make tomorrow’s history lessons. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you. Act! History is measured in actions, not inactions. A woman became Pharoah in Egypt, because she wanted it and went for it, she also made it into the valley of the kings, not queens. The pyramids seem senseless today, but they still make good historical stories and references.
3. Dream Big Dreams: The Egyptian history is a lovely read today, because their leaders dared big things. The Oblix they made is used in Turkey, France, Italy and other parts of the world. The tombs they built for their kings is breath taking and the temples awe inspiring. They dreamt big dreams and went after achieving them. According to Helen Keller, life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all!
4. Document, Create History: When you die, what will be said about you? Can anybody write your biography? Is there anything about you that continues to live on after you are gone? Are you passing through life, or are you leaving footprints? Are you making marks on sand or on stone? The Egyptians have tons of writings and book compilations all over the walls of their temples and tombs, they have history enough for people to go to school to study. What history are you making.
5. Leverage on what you have: In most of Eypt, it only rains one week in a year, and that week, it rains for about one minute per day. The only source of water they have is the Nile, and the leverage it! It’s the same river for irrigation, same river for toursim, same river for electricity. The Nile is Egypts life line, and the most interesting thing is, the popular river nile is so narrow, any good swimmer can swim across it 🙂 You can litterally see the east from the west.
6. Speak Up: I don’t know what part of Egytian history makes the average Egyptian an agressive sales man or woman, but you can’t put it past them. The theme in their shops seem to be buy or die. They also averagely have good and well projected voices. Lady or guy, they can stand in front of a crowd of 30 people and explain the magic in their products. I actually determined I wasn’t going to leave Egypt until I got an Egyptian referral for Holidays and Cash 🙂
7. Polarize your options and make choices: Chose life after death to life on the shortterm. Chose adding value to others over living a selfish life. Chose action to inaction. Chose risk over caution. Chose faith over fear. Memorable over casual. Extraordinary over common, adventure over nothing and love over hate.
