Feb 2022 MA Final MAL46 | Page 6

CROSSFIRE

By Herman Githinji

It ’ s another year gone . We are for sure growing old . Are you one of those born when both teachers and parents could call you some random abusive words without care ? Did they even know what they were talking about ? Anyway , those offensive words never impacted us because we also didn ’ t know what they meant .

A Mr . Macharia in our primary school used to call us “ stupid pupa .” Teachers , by the way , are the only employees who dare to punish their customers and get away with it . I came to understand much later that a pupa is a stage of the lifecycle of a butterfly .

Let me refresh your memory about this piece of Biology . The egg is the first stage of a butterfly ’ s metamorphosis . The caterpillar or lava is the second stage . As the caterpillar grows , it splits its skin and sheds it about 4 or 5 times . Caterpillar can increase 100 times their size during this stage . When the caterpillar is fully grown and stops eating , it becomes a pupa or chrysalis . This stage can last from a few weeks , a month , or even years , depending on the species . Some species have pupa staying for two years . The adult stage is the butterfly we all know , and its main work is reproduction .

Despite the offensive words yelled at us at the lower levels , we held in there and grew enough to know that we amounted to something more . But maybe not much . Most of us know what is possible and what ’ s out of reach at mid-life . I am not saying you don ’ t go for it , but don ’ t kill yourself chasing water that ’ s most likely under the bridge .

By now , I know I may never be a President , Professor , Doctor , Musician , or Model . Whereas I know what I can become , I am still very far from discovering who I can eventually become . The ultimate person I can become is determined by how well I continue growing my inside towards a better me .

In pursuit of growing my person , I need to step out of my caterpillar stage and take time locked in the pupa stage , where I slow my outward activities and focus on inner maturity . That means I reflect differently on the material and social-physical goals that I have pursued all my life .

When you grow up in an environment of material scarcity , your core goal is to make money . We were taught how to go out there and work hard to make money when we were little . So , the grand narrative was that you go to school and work hard , get yourself a job or do business , and then make money . Then use the money to seek happiness .

Success or failure in life is evaluated based on how many material things you accumulate . And nature principles have it that the more you can ’ t afford

“ When you get something you value , it initially gives you the highest satisfaction , but the rate of satisfaction decreases as you receive more of that same thing . Economists call it the law of diminishing marginal utility . ” something , the more valuable it becomes ; hence , the more you think it ’ s the panacea to all your problems . But as you afford more of that something , the value placed on it reduces .

So , when you get something you value , it initially gives you the highest satisfaction , but the rate of satisfaction decreases as you receive more of that same thing . Economists call it the law of diminishing marginal utility .

The logic , therefore , follows that when we get money and solve most of the problems that it can solve , the other latent issues come to the fore . We are quickly baffled when faced with different problems or issues that money can ’ t solve . We desperately try to throw in more money into that problem “ with the hopes ” to extinguish it , but no amount of money is enough to fill some voids inside ourselves . That ’ s when we realize that we focused for far too long on fortifying ourselves against material lack and did zero to develop our inner self for other adversities that money can ’ t solve .

We get overwhelmed when faced with some of these challenges because we never thought about them and developed the qualities and resilience required to counter them . We focus on changes outwardly as we grow and do nothing to guide what ’ s changing within us . While for other living creatures , change occurs naturally ,

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MAL 46 / 22 ISSUE