It may be irresponsible to think, for once, that probably one of man’s most longing is for novelty. But certainly, whether known to him/her or not, underlying almost every man’s attempt at life is an unexpressed quest for renewal and a more fulfilling life experience – although, in such pursuit, a man seems to be a victim of his self-made traps or conditioning of his circumstances. Even if he/she was to get a chance to permanently overcome this condition by drinking from a fountain of healing waters, man would probably rather devise a phobia of some sort as an excuse to avoid trying.
In the history of man, very few are mentioned who had mysterious bravery to conquer the unchartered waters and sailing into the unknown in response to their natural instinct/intuition while withstanding mockery and criticism – While the rest of us remained consumed by fear and stuck to entertaining the mundane aspects of life with very predictable outcomes. This could be because the trap of comfort can be elusive and one would rather prefer to stick to what is known than take the risk of seeking for new ways of living and risking being the epitome of madness – Let alone questioning and overcoming self-limiting beliefs from years of continuous fearful conditioning.
For example, before 1954 it was universally believed that no man can run a mile in less than four minutes, but Roger Bannister believed it can be done, trained hard and eventually ran a mile in less than four minutes. And since then, thousands of athletes did it even in less time than Bannister. One can just imagine just how many more beliefs we may be carrying from one generation to the next which, when fundamentally investigated, may be found to be flawed and baseless.
One concern hardly raised though is that there are also people out there who also project their own fears and insecurities on others though – just because they believe they cannot do it, they also want to convince everyone else around them that it can’t be done, period! And imagine a 5-year-old who is in care of a person of that kind and says he would like to become an astronaut. Obviously, he would be a laughing stock – if not eaten alive by the fear projected on him until his bladder is emptied involuntarily.
Now that’s forgivable because the fear is derived from outside. But how about when the enemy one is fighting is from within? Where one has the clear visions that he/she knows can come to fruition but the only thing standing in the way is fear – and often, the worst fear may not even be of failure of execution but more about what other people would think or say. And funny enough, even if you ask for the mention of names of such people or their residential address, you would be shocked to find out that they do not even exist anywhere else than in one’s head.
We all undoubtedly know that change is the only thing that is constant and inevitable. However change does not necessarily mean fighting the old ways but, more importantly, to devise new ones – for even the ones we found here and follow today were at some point in time non-existent. And to do that we all have a responsibility to be the change we would love to see and that we may only achieve it if we embrace our fears, and take a detour into the unknown – A maverick’s way.
E-mail: karlsimbumusic@gmail.com
OSHIMWENYO will be published every Friday in the New Era newspaper with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka.