A Soiled Hand Equals a Soiled World

Posted on November 3, 2019 by the Editor

By Gbemisola Atere. Gbemisola, 21, is a student at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, in Lagos, Nigeria. Please read her article and leave thoughts and comments below.

I am about to take your mind on a journey. If at the end you do not find it adventurous, find me by all means and throw at me a soiled blow!

I have come up with three approaches to help you understand.

First, picture a bucket in your head. The bucket is filled with mud. You dip one hand into the bucket. You bring out your hand and it begins to drip. Of course, I do not need to ask if the look of it is irritating to you. Now, imagine yourself shaking someone with that soiled hand. Let’s say you quickly get the hand washed and the person you shook comes back and shakes your clean hand, what happens next? It gets dirty again!

The person you shook shakes another person. It goes on and on like that.

That is how hate works. That mud is hate — it is dirty and unhealthy! The person you show hate to (like the person you shook) may not show hate back to you, it could be the person next to him or her. The cycle never ends!

Second. “Telles entrées telle sortie” The statement in quote is the French interpretation of “Garbage In, Garbage Out” (GIGO). Let me assume that GIGO is not strange to you. In Computer Science, GIGO means whatever you feed into your computer system is what it gives back to you. If your input is faulty or full of errors, your output cannot be any different. Same applies to hate. Hate can never produce love. Hate will always be hate.

Third, let’s do quick arithmetic. Perhaps you detest mathematics and ran away from it in high school just like me; but don’t get scared yet. I promise you won’t have to rack your brain to calculate.

Here it is:

1+1= 2

2+1= 3

3+1= 4

4+1= 5

I will be “one brick short of a full load” (that is, stupid) to say one plus one equals one. If you keep adding one to each answer you get, gradually you will number up to one hundred. Before you snap your fingers, you would have arrived at one thousand. That is how you will count up to a million, then a billion and boom! You’d reach the total number of the world’s population. Remember you started first by adding one to one.

That is exactly how hate spreads. It may start small and seem slow. At the end, it becomes like a wild fire.

“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get”- Confucius. Just as it is easy for you to calculate one plus one, so also is it to hate.

Here is a quote from Nelson Mandela: “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”  You have no reason at all to hate. Learn to love. Love is one language that is understood by all regardless of race, age, status, culture or religion. You know what they say? Love conquers all!

Eldridge Cleaver says “the price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.” You tend to slowly lose the love you ought to have for yourself when you hate others. To hate may be easy but it comes with a price which is not worth it or is it?

When next the pang of hate hits you, remember:

The bucket of mud,

“Garbage in, garbage out”

And that simple arithmetic!

I would leave you with this quote:

“Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat”- Henry Emerson Fosdick

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94 comments on “A Soiled Hand Equals a Soiled World”

  2. Abiodun Esther on

    It brings me down to Bible passage that says “love your as your self” love indeed conquers all things.
    Great write up.

    Reply
  12. Adeoye Ayoolwatomiwa Jubal on

    Gbemi dear,
    You are already known for hitting milestones in the writing world.
    This piece is just an example to prove that
    More ink to your pen
    Keep doing the good work

    Reply
  28. Oluwaseun Bamidele on

    This writeup is really awesome gbemisola. Its a collective call to all and sundry to rise up and tackle this menace called hate. It has eaten deep into our society most especially when it comes religion, tribe and skin color. We must all preach love and your article is one step already. Thanks alot for this. God bless you.

    Reply
  31. Boluwatife Dahunsi on

    Wawu….. Never saw it like this.

    This is great and illuminating….

    Well, a little bit of love and kindness and the world would be a little more better.

    Reply
  49. Kuti Funso on

    Even Hate hates himself and Love loves himself! Why shouldn’t we all join hate in hating himself and love in loving himself!
    Thanks ma’am.

    Reply
  69. Oladimeji on

    ‘A enlightenment piece carefully coated with explicit advice like a savour for all’ Kudos Gbemi, more knowledge to your ‘6’, more ink to your pen and more strength to your arms.

    Reply

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