Growing Older!
My birthday is less than a month away and I had thought I would write this post to commemorate the day but I decided not to allow the thoughts to fly away especially as I am just watching the landscape fly by as I travel back home after a weeks sojourn in the land of beauty.
The inspiration for this post came from two fulani women begging for a lift at the side of the road with their calabash full of 'fura de nono' on the ground beside them. I thought of trying to decipher their ages but I knew that I would not be able to, for all I know we may have been born on the same day but life and its attendant toil has left its mark on us to varying degrees.
I know I am older not because I can tell you the exact second I was born but because these days I find I am referred to more as 'madam' than before. I am knelt down to or curtsied to more often than I do the same. Initially I found it embarrassing and would rush to tell the other party not to bother but these days I smile and graciously accept the greeting after all its not easy living to my age and telling the story and anyway its a more pleasant mode of greeting than being derisively called 'that girl'.
I know I am older because my teeth groan and complain when I try to attack a tough piece of meat or crack through the bones to get to the marrow (yes I am my mother's child:)) and instead of succeeding I know instinctively that my teeth are more likely to lose the battle if I persist than I enjoy the juices only found in a tough piece of meat or bone marrow! The inbuilt signal seems to warn me that my teeth today are ten years older than they were a decade ago. No I don't have white hair or wrinkles or missing teeth (minus the molar pulled out by the dentist) but I can't push my body to do anything extraordinary (don't laugh for those who know me I am more of a potato couch than a star athlete) before hearing some creaks in my joints and I don't have arthritis!
I know I am older because I can't get away with playing practical jokes or laughing with reckless abandon at someone's gaffe. A few years ago it would have been treated as the ignorant foolishness of a youngster, now the looks I would get tell me that only 'agbaya's' try such antics.
I know I am older as some outfits certainly do not rock. Not that I like to wear 'rocking' outfits, my friends can testify:) but I certainly know that some outfits do not befit my age! I can no longer wear outfits like that one skirt I wore everyday during the holidays caused by strikes that eventually disappeared or was more likely gotten rid of by my parents who grew tired of me wearing the same outfit day in day out and realised that instead of talking to me allowing the skirt to disappear would be a much better option: I am more likely to buy new outfits that I previously would have thought caused an arm and a leg (I hope I am not hearing you shout Hallelujah!)
I know I am older because I see through many things 'adults' do. What used to be acceptable doctrine without a shadow of doubt is no longer the gospel truth to me, I find myself picking more holes than substance through so called blanket statements made by those older than me and finding out that many are just lies told over and over again that they begin to believe that its the truth! In Yoruba land an elder tells no lies o!
Going back to the Fulani women who started this off, if we were the exact same age and I was in their shoes, I would probably be pregnant or have just borne my tenth child, married to a mallam with a herd of 50 cows ( I would have been rich o! Or at least married to a rich man cow wise). My first daughter would have been preparing to go to her husband's house:) and all my earthly possessions would be carried by my family whenever we had to move the herd to new grazing ground.
My teeth would still be intact but they would be unmercifully stained by the kola nut I would eat every day. Walking twenty miles down the road would be nothing compared to the many miles we would trek because of season changes and after the end of the day I would not be so weary that I wont be able to set up tent and cook for my family of ten children with the attendant extras!
I would look at the young lady in the vehicle which passes me as I beg for a lift and wish I was as young as she was and as carefree to live my life all over again!
The inspiration for this post came from two fulani women begging for a lift at the side of the road with their calabash full of 'fura de nono' on the ground beside them. I thought of trying to decipher their ages but I knew that I would not be able to, for all I know we may have been born on the same day but life and its attendant toil has left its mark on us to varying degrees.
I know I am older not because I can tell you the exact second I was born but because these days I find I am referred to more as 'madam' than before. I am knelt down to or curtsied to more often than I do the same. Initially I found it embarrassing and would rush to tell the other party not to bother but these days I smile and graciously accept the greeting after all its not easy living to my age and telling the story and anyway its a more pleasant mode of greeting than being derisively called 'that girl'.
I know I am older because my teeth groan and complain when I try to attack a tough piece of meat or crack through the bones to get to the marrow (yes I am my mother's child:)) and instead of succeeding I know instinctively that my teeth are more likely to lose the battle if I persist than I enjoy the juices only found in a tough piece of meat or bone marrow! The inbuilt signal seems to warn me that my teeth today are ten years older than they were a decade ago. No I don't have white hair or wrinkles or missing teeth (minus the molar pulled out by the dentist) but I can't push my body to do anything extraordinary (don't laugh for those who know me I am more of a potato couch than a star athlete) before hearing some creaks in my joints and I don't have arthritis!
I know I am older because I can't get away with playing practical jokes or laughing with reckless abandon at someone's gaffe. A few years ago it would have been treated as the ignorant foolishness of a youngster, now the looks I would get tell me that only 'agbaya's' try such antics.
I know I am older as some outfits certainly do not rock. Not that I like to wear 'rocking' outfits, my friends can testify:) but I certainly know that some outfits do not befit my age! I can no longer wear outfits like that one skirt I wore everyday during the holidays caused by strikes that eventually disappeared or was more likely gotten rid of by my parents who grew tired of me wearing the same outfit day in day out and realised that instead of talking to me allowing the skirt to disappear would be a much better option: I am more likely to buy new outfits that I previously would have thought caused an arm and a leg (I hope I am not hearing you shout Hallelujah!)
I know I am older because I see through many things 'adults' do. What used to be acceptable doctrine without a shadow of doubt is no longer the gospel truth to me, I find myself picking more holes than substance through so called blanket statements made by those older than me and finding out that many are just lies told over and over again that they begin to believe that its the truth! In Yoruba land an elder tells no lies o!
Going back to the Fulani women who started this off, if we were the exact same age and I was in their shoes, I would probably be pregnant or have just borne my tenth child, married to a mallam with a herd of 50 cows ( I would have been rich o! Or at least married to a rich man cow wise). My first daughter would have been preparing to go to her husband's house:) and all my earthly possessions would be carried by my family whenever we had to move the herd to new grazing ground.
My teeth would still be intact but they would be unmercifully stained by the kola nut I would eat every day. Walking twenty miles down the road would be nothing compared to the many miles we would trek because of season changes and after the end of the day I would not be so weary that I wont be able to set up tent and cook for my family of ten children with the attendant extras!
I would look at the young lady in the vehicle which passes me as I beg for a lift and wish I was as young as she was and as carefree to live my life all over again!
"Madam" Tomi,I see that you have joined those with silver in their hair,gold in their teeth,gas in their stomachs and lead in their feet!
ReplyDeleteIt was an interesting read though.
"Madam" Tomi,I see that you have joined those with silver in their hair,gold in their teeth,gas in their stomachs and lead in their feet!
ReplyDeleteIt was an interesting read though.
Not exactly, no silver in my hair, no gold in myteeth only amalgam and certainly no gas in my stomach caveat minus after a beans meal! as for lead only leather on my feet:)
ReplyDelete