upepo
Elder Lister
Nothing is too easy to be learnt
We are relaxing with a friend one Saturday morning around a shopping center. This Luhya man comes rushing and requests for some help. He has just come home from work (yes, he was a watchman), only to discover he has forgotten his house keys at work. He now wants my friend to lend him a bike so that he can rush back to work to collect the keys. My friend obliges and hands him the bike. The man takes the bike, holds onto the handle bars confidently, and straddles the seat. He is tall enough to have both feet on the ground while sitting on the bike. Here is where the drama begins. Every time he cranks the pedal with one foot to take off, he would tumble in the opposite direction. Luckily, he was tall enough to avoid falling to the ground. He was particularly persistent and could not accept that the bike was refusing to go. He spent more than 10 minutes coercing the bike to move, without success. Meanwhile, onlookers had gathered in their numbers to witness the spectacle. Apparently, the fellow had lived under the illusion that he could ride a bike, maybe due to his huge size, which allowed him to straddle a full-sized bike the way you would a kid’s bike. This was his day of reckoning, under the full glare of the morning sun and village eyes.
Now comes the lesson; how many things do you assume you could do just because they seem too easy? I have seen people who cannot hammer a nail, cut a piece of wood with a handsaw, or unfasten a bolt the first time they tried. Yet they always assumed it was too simple to learn.
We are relaxing with a friend one Saturday morning around a shopping center. This Luhya man comes rushing and requests for some help. He has just come home from work (yes, he was a watchman), only to discover he has forgotten his house keys at work. He now wants my friend to lend him a bike so that he can rush back to work to collect the keys. My friend obliges and hands him the bike. The man takes the bike, holds onto the handle bars confidently, and straddles the seat. He is tall enough to have both feet on the ground while sitting on the bike. Here is where the drama begins. Every time he cranks the pedal with one foot to take off, he would tumble in the opposite direction. Luckily, he was tall enough to avoid falling to the ground. He was particularly persistent and could not accept that the bike was refusing to go. He spent more than 10 minutes coercing the bike to move, without success. Meanwhile, onlookers had gathered in their numbers to witness the spectacle. Apparently, the fellow had lived under the illusion that he could ride a bike, maybe due to his huge size, which allowed him to straddle a full-sized bike the way you would a kid’s bike. This was his day of reckoning, under the full glare of the morning sun and village eyes.
Now comes the lesson; how many things do you assume you could do just because they seem too easy? I have seen people who cannot hammer a nail, cut a piece of wood with a handsaw, or unfasten a bolt the first time they tried. Yet they always assumed it was too simple to learn.
