As the old saying goes, you can take a villager out of the village but you can never (effectively) remove the village out of him (him denotesboth sexes)! As many a villager may know, we the villagers are alwaysparty “animals”. On that note, when a one young man, decided to commit himself to a “life sentence”, we decided to go all out and witness the “judgment” being passed unto him. As Kenny Rogers sang in his popular song (You Can’t Run Away From the Long Arm of The Law), “Son, I sentence you to Life with Marie Anna” and so was the case to be! Who are we to stop a guy who is obsessed with the desire to be a “prisoner” for life? Now, that reminds me of a man that had a party hosted in his honour by none other than his children, of whom, his elder son was marking his twentieth birthday at the same time as the parents were marking their twentieth anniversary in marriage! Not an easy feat was it? The guy walked out and leaned on the corner of the house and began sobbing quietly. Not seeing the Dad, the son went outside only to find the Dad in a sombre mood rather than a festive one. More in wonder than awe, the son inquired, “Daddy, you should be happily celebrating your marriage anniversary rather than being so sad”! The father opened up to the son, “son, exactly twenty years ago today, I had impregnated your mother, was taken to court, your grandfather who happened to be the judge gave me only two options; either to marry your mother or go to jail for twenty years, I chose the former”. Now, “why are you sad?” Inquired the son! “Son, if I had chosen the latter, I would be walking out of prison a free man today, but here I am, a prisoner for life”, the Dad answered amid sobs! This story quickly comes to mind every time I see a couple preparing to get married. As a matter of fact, I too have been a prisoner and swore to be one till I breathe my last breath! It is quite obnoxious that, these days, many people tell me that, the “chain keeper” or call her my “prison wardess” and I resemble! As if the pain of being “imprisoned” is not enough, she has robbed me of so many personal effects, I suspect that she too is obvious of the resemblance or else why would she (Mrs Mfashumwana) go around telling people that she misses me even when we are almost always together? She takes away my resemblance, drops her name just to take mine (maybe that is out of what once upon a time was love) or she just wants to tell all the other members of her sex that, they should keep away from me, eh? Now, after the young man had decided to tread where we the “elders” dare tread or tread with too much caution, we decided to join in the celebrations and let him have his own would be medicine. There is a common saying that goes as follows, “if you advise a friend and he does not take heed, you too join the others in laughing at him.” mfashumwana@fastmail.fm
