When “dodge ball” brought back childhood memories

Well, last week was rather hectic in the media industry and social media. Everyone (including Courtney Love) was busy trying to find the lost Malaysian plane, experts had different opinions about the whereabouts of the plane. They searched in the Indian Ocean and might as well be heading to the “Congo jungles” as we speak. After UK based tabloid Sunday Sports claimed to have found it on the moon; enter social media with pictures of Kenyan Lawyer-cum-socialite Kwamboka Corazon. Corazon is another story but all that was too much to pile in our small medulla oblongata chambers and it came as a relief to be a passive actor in a childhood game of kwepena (dodge ball) as we used to call it. It was my friends’ way of relieving stress after a long day at work and their facial expressions could make the Guiness World Book of Records for the “Happiest faces” in one place. It was later when the game was over that I understood what those few minutes of kwepena meant to them. These are the last people that anyone would expect to find playing such a game but it was much needed relief. These are games most of us played when we were young and didn’t care about being watched or talked about. It was that moment when as children we would forget about school and be “silly’. As adults our lives rotate around our homes and work place. When we are supposed to be having fun, we end up in work-related stories and debates about social issues like the intellectuals we think we are. We get carried away in this whirlwind of work and family affairs that we no longer remember our childhood. Those memories we used to and still cherish are there, only that we want to look at them from an adult perspective. What would happen if we decided to overlook all the mishmash that comes with our work and try to revive all the memories that we hold dear? This means ignoring the people that nag you, the expensive gifts that you bought, your promotion or the new eye-candy on your arm. It means not complaining about the bank manager who refused to give you a bank loan, the girlfriend who just dumped you and the family that has a tendency to irritate you. We need to clear our heads and reminisce about the old days that we cherished that were not bogged down by worries and irritations. It is only then that you will truly see what life is truly for – not a matter of milestones, but of moments. It is too short to stress yourself with people who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life. It is when you start to take life as simply as a game of kwepena that you will understand that it is all you ever needed. It is about being able to do what is possible and stop thinking of attempting of doing the unthinkable. The more we try to wake up at odd hours to run errands and try to sleep late, the more we actually miss out on the good times of cherishing our childhood. To my friends, thanks for the game. We should do it again.