A Chance, Kidney and Success

Most of us live in the musty footnotes of history. You exit the stage and become a bygone. You swiftly blend into a statistic, lost in the vast sea of data, irretrievable, and anonymous. In contrast, it is easy to pinpoint a heroic individual. That one person who never gets relegated to the dusty annals of history. His deeds are legendary and leave an indelible mark deeply felt and etched at the back of our minds. He leaves behind a rich legacy that lingers persistently in our consciousness, a testament to his unforgettable character. With his unique flair and charisma, he captivates us effortlessly. This person could be a speaker who made you laugh or moved you to tears, or a figure from a book, like Napoleon or Alexander the Great, whose influence remains vivid and unforgettable.

He is calm and measured, avoiding the explosive temper and hyperaggressive demeanor that can make those around him anxious. He makes you feel at ease, fostering a sense of tranquility that enhances conversational engagement, and his articulate, succinct speech makes you an excellent listener. He instills a sense of safety, making you comfortable enough to openly share your secrets without fear of future repercussions. He embodies the adage, "Heroes are celebrated for their heroic deeds, not for their victories or defeats." Despite a potentially tarnished reputation as a philanderer, when he sets his mind on something, he achieves it with remarkable success.

As you trudge through the journey of life, remember: "That which came with the help of luck will be taken away by luck." If you've ever read about lottery winners, you'll notice a common trait among them. Their newfound wealth is often rapidly and unexpectedly squandered because they tend to take excessive risks and make poor decisions associated with gambling. They are bereft of knowledge to steward their sudden windfall, leading them to splurge under a numbing false sense of security. Such an individual does not observe the barrel of reality regarding the fleeting nature of wealth. Easy come, easy go.

In a civilized society, there are many avenues for putting your megamillions into good use. An individual who has won 100 million overnight, probably after two years of betting, may consider himself a successful gambler. Ideally, this may distort your perception as it is not the reality of your prowess. It is a mistaken belief. When you cast a bet, there is a way it corrupts your mind. You think you are a winner and good strategist when in reality, it might just be a result of a stochastic process. Unlike Russian Roulette, which offers a 5/6 chance of survival, or a single football match with a 1/3 chance of predicting the outcome correctly, most gambling scenarios are unpredictable. A deep understanding of Monte Carlo methods is crucial to astutely making precise calculations, navigating the probabilities, mastering the odds, and determining an ideal bet size that wins when you wager.

The route less traveled is the lengthy and reliable one, yet the allure of shortcuts often overshadows this more secure path. We are conditioned to believe that the more perilous and treacherous the journey, the easier it is to achieve success. If you couple this with reducing the number of steps beyond the norm, you might be hailed as a genius. Consider the stark difference between a dentist and a gambler in how they make money. The dentist earns his wealth through a diligent and skillful process, drilling people's teeth and relying on his expertise and the location of his clinic. If a gambler and a dentist both have a similar amount of money, they might seem equally rich on paper. However, we often overlook the process behind their wealth. The dentist's earnings come from hard work and skill, while the gambler's fortune is through the whims of chance.

The dentist's wealth is the culmination of years of diligent study, perfecting his craft, and building a customer base. In the realm of finance, having a loyal customer base adds significant value to an entity's net worth. The wealth the dentist has accumulated is not dependent on randomness like that of the gambler. It is qualitatively different, reflecting years of sustained effort and experience. It is not a fragile glass house that shatters with a single stone. In contrast, the gambler's newfound fortune is akin to a precarious stack of cards, which can tumble from the slightest disturbance, since it lacks a solid base. Nowadays, gamblers are often euphemistically referred to as 'investors,' but the underlying reality of their wealth remains precarious.

It is evident that a dentist possesses a strong work ethic and stability. He has a dull career and is the epitome of the suburban family man. Still, he surprises you with the intellectual depth and sharpness of mind akin to an aerobics instructor. Aside from the millions in accumulated savings, his investment portfolio likely includes treasury bonds, bills, and a diverse range of stocks that yield steady income. Furthermore, he seeks advice from tax experts, estate lawyers, and reputable individuals of robust intellectual energy. The idea is to safeguard accumulated wealth from natural uncertainties and the potential depletion of assets. After all, there are countless ways to deplete funds compared to the avenues available for generating it.

On the other hand, the gambler may indulge in extravagance, misled by an illusion of stability. Driven by a desire to flaunt his newfound wealth, he might move to a wealthy neighborhood and expect admiration for his rags-to-riches story. In the gambling arena, they may perceive themselves as smart, but they are passé. He may adopt hobbies like wine collecting and listening to jazz music, believing they reflect his newfound sophistication. Soon, the gambler develops a 'refined' taste, fantasizing about exotic locations, seeking admiration from superficial sources like fatuous journalists, and imagining himself on the Forbes list of top billionaires.

However, the gambler remains unaware of the ignoble risk he's taking—the risk of losing everything. He might even leave his wife for an Instagram commercial model who fits into his new high-status lifestyle, abandoning a relationship deemed too ordinary and human amid his desire for a more glamorous existence.

Hasta La Vista, Baby.

Read More

Indisposed

About this season, there inevitably comes a point when you find yourself feeling under the weather, often without any prior planning or anticipation. You normally expect you will be as fit as fiddle and not even the slightest notion of dizziness crosses your mind. On occasion, you might wake up with a slight tickle in the throat, which often heralds the onset of something like a common cold. It's your body's early warning system, suggesting that it's time to take some extra care of yourself, perhaps indulging in warm gingered tea and ample rest, to ward off the impending sniffles and sneezes. 

If you know how to deal with the precursor, you nip it in the bud before it escalates and manifests in your entire body. For instance, you may take lozenges if you notice a subtle scratchiness in your vocal cords before it develops into a sore throat. If left unchecked, you end up catching a bug whose origin is uncertain, given the multitude of people we encounter daily. Suddenly, you find that you are not 100%. While it may not be a definitive sign of illness, it is a good indicator that your immune system is gearing up for a fight. Being aware of these signals puts you in a better position to timely take action to maintain your health.

Some people opt for a cautious approach, taking the physician's route, while others adopt a more laissez-faire attitude, hoping their bodies will acclimate. Regardless of whether you have insurance coverage or not, it's wise to consult a healthcare professional. An initial remedy may be to lie low and focus on getting better; this advice often slips your mind, or you may be unaware of it. It's important to remember that taking time to rest and heal is not just beneficial but necessary for speedy recovery.

While it is a smart move to take time off to rest and consult a doctor if symptoms persist, the folly in you may delay seeking medical attention until the situation worsens. Some may even turn to traditional remedies, such as herbalists, or home remedies, like Mwarubaini, to boost our immune system. Mwarubaini, for instance,  is known to be effective for common colds when dissolved in hot water and inhaled as steam, aiding in the expulsion of pathogens from the body. Although I've never tried it myself, I recall my mother administering a similar remedy called 'yath afita' during my childhood. It was a pungent concoction that would not only make me sneeze but help clear out any congestion in the nasal passages.

This past week, I began to notice symptoms of an impending illness. It started with a dry throat, a sensation that seemed to loom in the distance and left me a bit uneasy. Soon after,  my stomach started feeling a little bit off. Then a bloated sensation crept in and I thought some over-the-counter drugs would work. Hoping to alleviate these symptoms, I opted for Eno. As the weather turned colder, I found myself battling a fever, compounded by a loss of appetite. Some fevers have a way of laying you down. They invade like a fierce toro bravo charging towards a matador in a bullring with magenta and gold capote as the only weapon for protection. The way the bull is bred, its aggression is matched only by its formidable physique. It is swift, nimble, and agile. And trained to target the matador who must expertly dodge the bull's horns and outmaneuver the charging beast.

The bull analogy may not be flawless, but it underscores a crucial correlation. Just as the bull charges into the ring, unpredictable and potent, illness can strike unexpectedly, leaving one vulnerable and unprepared. When interacting with others during this season, the risk of infection looms, especially in social settings where contact is prolonged. The virus, much like the charging bull, maybe in its final stages of exiting from its host's body. Without taking proper preventive measures, one becomes susceptible to its impact as it lodges itself in the immune system, ready to wreak havoc.

After a while, if your body does not succumb to indisposition and you are bedridden, you always can go back to what you do best. Health is wealth and it should be taken care of with utmost priority. If you feel like you need attention, don't hesitate to visit a health center with qualified and certified medics who can check, diagnose, and recommend some medication to improve your health. On the other hand, some individuals rarely fall ill due to their dominant and allele genes. You rarely hear that they called in sick; that's just about them. 

Hasta La Vista, Baby.

Read More

Let's Try Again

You are enveloped in the comfort of your bed; the ebbs and flows of a neon-pink vision dance in the darkness behind your closed eyes. How this color subtly flutters within your thoughts, almost imperceptibly, is beyond your cognition. It should symbolize fun moments, pleasant things, exquisite modernity, and a feminine touch. Are butterflies neon pink? Don't they spread their wide wings and appear like bright petals in mental imagery? It turns out, the neon pink glow emanating from the bedside table was responsible for casting the room in a mesmerizing iridescence.

It's five am, the moonlight filters through the curtains. The morning breeze feels wonderfully cool, just as it ought to. Normally, you do not need an alarm. Your sleep flow is like a tidal pattern, and the body instinctively senses the tide change in sleep. On this particular day, the eyelids droop heavily, the back aches, and you try to recall parts of the vivid hue that soaked you in a wet dream.

You want to eject out of bed like a videotape, which is then tenderly encased and stored for a nostalgic replay. But you are human, this time around, too groggy, too sore. You are not used to this, the visual puns and metaphor. A defeatist mindset leaves a desire to continue hugging the warm and soft duvet and imbue a sense of rest, curled up as happy as a cat snuggling. The mind is slow and turns leisurely like a beautiful carousel between the moments of sleep and wakefulness. It gradually shifts gears, from first to second then to a gentle third. There is no launch control to thrust you into swift action.

This is the day you wake up and suddenly the creators block attacks akin to the force of a Spartacan spear. You toss and turn in bed and ponder what to scribe, but the artiste in you, born to defeat the forces of malevolent dullness with the sword of sensual creativity, fails in connotations. As a living thing, you want to scamper and scramble out of this fantastic cemetery with bits of skeletons and skulls pulling you invisibly as if in a horror movie. This is the day you wake up with a shuddering yawn. You lazily switch on the lights and an apprehensive moment ensues. It was meant to be a typical day, filled with the usual playfulness and energy, yet somehow inspiration seemed elusive, hiding just out of reach.

It feels quiet at first, then you hear the whispers of the wind awakening the world, and the vicious hiss out of nowhere creates a careless bliss. This is a paradise for those who have known hard times. This is the city of rootless survival and restless vile. It struggles to keep desperate folks from jumping to their deaths from the top of unguarded apartments that kiss the polluted skyline. It kills ambitions and creates a night that is full of light. Soon, sunshine will maul darkness and violently scatter the moon's reflection. A day like this should feel fresh like chopped liver and peaceful like a priest at the altar. 

Gathering the little meaningful effort you have, you draw aside one curtain, open the wide window, and look out across to see nothing but a concrete jungle. Unusual as it is, you strip off the pajamas, go to the bathroom, and stand naked under the cold shower for a few minutes. This is to invigorate the peptic glide, to awaken the sluggish rhythm of life within. Afterward, you clean your teeth and gargle the sharp mouthwash to get rid of the unpleasant taste of the night from your mouth. An hour later, you are still in your seat, mulling about what to compose. You have reached a tacit kibosh. Even if you try to come up with incidental or indecorous images that imprint themselves scaldingly on the mind's eye, the ruin is yonder. It is a time to undergo the process of a “cleansing breath.”

Efforts to think clearly, express meaning, and join the journey of discovery, seem futile. Upon reviewing the initial pedagogy of your script, there is an urge to consign it into flames, incinerate it to ashes, and banish it from existence. Nothingness lingers in the mind. Impossible it is to ripple into action again. With the incredible refusal of inertia, you put your nose to the grindstone, but risk confusing yourself with a fatal flow. What could have been left to rest turns into gibberish. A nervous giggle rents the air and pierces the cozy silence, “Poor Anan, come back to bed.” It's the dystopian voice of a lady. Reverberating and giving the illusion that her thighs will offer the solution to your sere and emphatic struggle to improve your prose in a flash.

“This will be a page-turner that lures you into the contours of asphyxiation. Trust the process and let the world take its course.” You self console. You want to heed her advice. It's like a cliffhanger that leaves you contemplating. Should I go back and savor the warmth of the bed and a seductive and sensuous temptress, or should I just brave the situation and resist the temptation of fleeting pleasure? As always, the flesh is weak. When faced with a choice between two divergent paths, it's human nature to opt for the path that is familiar and promises an instant reward. 

Hasta La Vista, Baby.

Read More