Earlier today, I was at the market to meet someone and I couldn't help watching the multitude of people as they came and go doing their business. It occurred to me that the way our life works is simply a reflection of how a market works.
It's not like it's the first time I've had this thought. As a matter of fact, there's a ninety percent chance that anytime I set my foot on a market, I'm having this line of thought. Today was just the day I concluded and stopped looking for why it's not a good comparison.
You might wonder, how on earth does the workings of a market resemble the way we live or reflects life. Take solace in knowing I wondered about it a long time as well, since I was quite young actually. The first time I heard anything like it, it was from my mother and that's where it all started from.
I observed that there was so much disorder today and I couldn't help but wonder, is there no way of making the affairs of this market a little more orderly? But after thinking it a while, I realised, there's just about so much order that can be put in place there.
The only means of restoring any good amount of order there will require a lot of changes that will cost a lot of both good and bad people their livelihoods and anyone that were to do that, even though his intent is good, will be labelled a tyrant, a dictator and an evil person.
This is what we see today in our daily lives. We make plans and it just doesn't turn out the way we hoped. It just seem like there's so much out there that isn't within your control, but can affect your plans in so many ways. It feels like there's just so much you need to control but can't, giving you that feeling of so much disorder.
This might make you wonder if God cares because you know he has the power to fix this wacked world, but doing that will require such a level of cleansing and destruction that poeple will begin to ask who's God and who's the devil.
I noticed that some were selling their wares so quickly and effortlessly while others were not doing so well, despite all their effort to woo customers. I couldn't help but relate that with how some people seem to have it so easy in life, getting what they want before or as soon as they want it.
There's the other group that seems to have to earn every little thing with their blood and sweats, and sometimes with the blood and sweat, they still don't get it. Maybe you'll call it good luck, but I know a group that will call it the grace of God and I'm not so sure I disagree with them or have any reservations about that stance.
Again, some customers would stand at a particular place for a long time trying to get something, while others will come, meet them there, finish buying and still leave them there. Some will come to the market and spend so much time getting very few things, while some will come and finish in no time, getting everything they came for.
We also see this in our human lives in situations where some people are born into this world and they live a short life but leave a mark behind, while some will live a long time and have nothing much to show for it, and when I say nothing to show for it, I don't mean wealth, power or fame.
It just brought to mind thoughts of quality over quantity. It's not how long our lives will be that matters, but how much impact it will make, how much it will affect and better the world and people around us, that's what matters.
You could leave a hundred years and the measure of your life's value wouldn't be up to 15 on a scale of one to hundred, while another could have a life span of twenty-two years and the measure of his life value will be above eighty as a result of how much his life had contributed to uplifting and bettering those around him, his family, friends community, state, country, even the world at large. Bottoms line is, try to live a live worthwhile, one that will not be forgotten in the hearts and minds of those whose life you touched, bettered and uplifted.
I also observed that in the market place, whilst a lot of activities are concurrently going on, everybody aren't doing the same thing. Everybody is in the market, but some are buying, some are selling, some are moving goods short distance, while some are moving goods over long distance using vehicles, some are collecting levies, some are marketing for others and some are there to steal; yes steal. In a funny way, every group has to do what they do for the market to be what it is and for the market to work.
We also see this in life generally. We are all here on earth, we all want to live, and comfortably, but we are not all here to do the same thing. Basically, we all have different reasons for being born to the earth. In a funny way, everyone of us is like a cog in a giant machine.
Each cog, bolt and screw have different functions, and have to do it for the whole machine to work as intended. In the same vein, we all can't be doctors, lawyers or laundry man. We all have our different functions and the world will only work as it is meant to be if we do our task and do it well.
Why does this matter? It matters because it's sad to see people looked down on others because of the nature of their job. In the true sense of things, the bricklayer is just as important as the president, but we have developed a system where we have removed the dignity in certain jobs. This is due to the human tendency to create groups and class in every area of life.
As a result, those on the top of the food chain want to feel all mighty by making those down the chain feel like they are worthless. This is unkind and unfair. We all can't be big inventors or entrepreneur. There's nothing wrong in coming to this earth, leading a very simple and supposedly 'inconsequential life' and going home to wherever you believe we go when we die.
One of the best things I notice is that at the end of the day, no matter how the market day is, everybody will still have to go back home at the end of the day. They will go home to take stock of what they had done or achieved that day.
In the same vein, whether we believe or not, the earth is like a market to us and eventually we will have to go back home and give or take stock of how we have lived our lives. Now, where you will happen to be 'home' to you totally depends on what your religious orientation is.
The lesson to learn here is that we ought to strive to live right. We should desire to live lives that we would be proud of and that will give us peace when it's time to make that transition between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This should be the drive behind everything we do and desire in our lifetime.
I hope you learnt something from this article. Thanks for reading.