Between Kelechi Deca and Prof Emeka Nwankwo , I don’t recall the real author of ‘This Life’ , but I find it worthy to share it verbatim because of the lessons it taught. I also hope the wordings find meanings to you as it did to me.
The credit goes to the either of the duo or both in collective.
Coward of the Country isn’t just a country song by Kenny Rogers but a teaching of its own.
It taught that this life may be complicated and that the more you know, the more you discover how much you do not know.
I hardly take a black or white stand on issues because most answers are in the grey areas of the equations.
Two of the most inspiringly teachable songs I have heard in this life incidentally came from the stable of the legendary Kenny Rogers
The first is Mr. Gambler.
The second is Coward of the County.
Mr. Gambler was written by Don Schlitz in 1978. That song has an entire history of its journey to stardom.
But in my opinion, no other song is as complete and exhaustive in propping up life lessons and the duality of our daily encounters as Coward of the County.
It has great lessons in fatherhood.
It highlights the challenges of absence of father figures for young boys.
It projects how father’s can transmit their inadequacies to their sons.
And the urge for parents to try to correct their mistakes in life in the lives of their kids.
Take a look at the advice Tommy’s father gave him.
“Promise me, Son, not to do the things I’ve done
Walk away from trouble if you can
Now it won’t mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek
I hope you’re old enough to understand
Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man”
It also teaches about love, commitment, contentment and sacrifice.
For example, the young guy Tommy whom everyone writes off as the coward of the county and refers to as Yellow was never expected to find love, yet he found someone who loves him as he was, warts and all.
“There’s someone for everyone and Tommy’s love was Becky
In her arms, he didn’t have to prove he was a man”
Everyone, male and female needs someone with whom your vulnerabilities cannot be shamed.
Becky was that person for Tommy.
Yesterday I wrote about how a cornered animal can fight back, and ruthlessly so to the point of mutually assured destruction.
When the Gatlin boys sexually molested Becky and Tommy saw his Becky crying, that ferocious animal instinct was aroused in him and he set out to unleash it.
And to make matters worse, the Gatlin boys made fun of him when he heeded his father’s advice to walk away from trouble.
Then there’s the aspect of unhealed childhood wounds. Some people have inside them sleeping beasts that they may not even be aware of.
This is captured in the line that says;
“Twenty years of crawling was bottled up inside him
He wasn’t holding nothing back, he let ‘em have it all
When Tommy left the bar room, not a Gatlin boy was standing
He said, “This one’s for Becky”, as he watched the last one fall”
Then came his confession when he realised that his father’s advice wasn’t tenable in the circumference.
“I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you’ve done
I walk away from trouble when I can
Now please don’t think I’m weak, I didn’t turn the other cheek
And Papa, I should hope you understand
Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man”
That’s the duality of circumstances of life and challenges we face daily. What works under circumstance A may not work in B.
And when you judge B by your understanding of circumstance A, you miss it.
“Life is flux,” said the philosopher Heraclitus. The Greek philosopher pointed out in 500 BC that everything is constantly shifting, and becoming something other to what it was before. Ordinarily, a Zebra biting a crocodile should be considered as a waste of the much needed energy it should conserve for survival because it is facing a “sure” death.
The crocodile — specifically, the Saltwater Crocodile (the highest recorded “live” bite of 3700 PSI) and the Nile Crocodile (estimated 4000-5000 PSI, so no animal stands a chance with a croc.
A Zebra unfortunately can’t boast of its bite force, rather it has the strongest kick of any animal at 3000psi, enough to kill a man or smash the skull of a Lion. However, a kick makes sense on land not inside the water. Eagles pick dangerous snakes and fly in the air. At that height their venoms are useless because their brains are discombobulated. They can’t signal.
Yet, for this Zebra, fighting back is its only chance of survival and it chose to bite the crocodile around the eye socket.
Crocs protect their eyes and underbelly with everything they’ve got. Those are their most vulnerable spots.
If you know crocodiles a lot, you’d know that Croc is in pain and praying for escape route.
How the Zebra knew, I do not know.
Everything has intelligence.
Sometimes you’ve gotta fight when you’re a man.
Knowing when is what counts.
Without “When”, the “How” is like winking in the dark.
In Igbo, Onyekaozuru is a name, a question and a statement