THERE are no cockroaches in Manhattan, where I am at the moment, at least they are not as visible or apparent as they are back home, but here, nearly every train, subway or metro, bus and even taxis carry a message about how the cockroach is lurking, waiting, behind sinks, between boards, and under sofas, just waiting to catch you unaware!
All the ads talk about, is being prepared with some spray, pesticide or other, and the people wait, spray in hand for that poor brown winged fellow to appear and yet I say, there are no cockroaches I’ve seen!
I’d gone to a mall yesterday and found toothpicks being sold, mentioning some disease or other you could get by not using a toothpick of the highest brand! Imagine even that simple piece of wood you shoved so gracelessly between your teeth had some with intentions to tear your precious teeth apart! And the public read the advertising, fall victim to the marketing strategies and buy them in thousands!
Fear is the key! Fear is also the key that drives some of our silly insecurities. Just as the New Yorker stands spray gun in hand waiting for hidden cockroaches, we do the same: Our fears over trivialities are many! Don’t trust people of another faith because he might steal your sister or daughter, say the politicians, and we start distrusting our best friends, thinking they have some magical power over our women!
Don’t trust the orphanage round the corner because they only want to convert children, and we stop donating money to some home who are saving children from the streets! Or it could be insecurities and baggage we’ve had from childhood; scared of new places, new jobs, scared about making friends, and we stand gun in hand or maybe with childhood toothpick preventing ourselves from moving forward or trusting someone!
What we need to do is address these fear filled statements: Open that hidden board in your bathroom, see whether a cockroach lurks, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find there’s nothing there! So throw out the gun! The same with politically motivated fears: Address them! Do you really think your daughter or sister is going to run away with anybody or everybody just because the clever politician says so? Don’t you think you’ve educated her enough to have a mind of her own?
Don’t you think that new job gives you fresh opportunities, could change your life and take you places? Or maybe it’s going to a new city to join a good college? Just go! Stop looking at those cockroach ads, stop listening to people who ignite fear through clever words. Fear is the key used by them. Throw that key away and step into a ‘free from fear’ country..!
