Sometimes I’m not sure why my heart bleeds...

Life is a movie. I should know this since I am an actor and I know how things work in the world of make-belief. In every capacity in life we are playing a role – as the wife, the mother, the boss, the employee, the student, the teacher, the leader, the follower, the politician, or the pained masses. It’s the script of life, and we all have our roles to fulfil. Now whether our roles are gladly chosen by us is another matter entirely; yet whether we like it or not it is expected we do something about that role that has been bequeathed on us. Some a more privileged than others and their scripts a little easier and straight forward.

I think for many people, playing the role of a lover is one of the most fascinating ever! Everyone wants to be loved, and as real life is such a hard nut to crack, we are all searching for someone who can ease our burden and tell us, “it’s gonna be ok” with a kiss to erase our doubts and fears. That would be the perfect script...but life is not perfect, and like a movie most of these things come to a grinding halt with bitter after taste.

I have always wondered why love is such a beautiful thing and yet the most breaking experience all at the same time. And as we advance into the centuries of vanity, the whole love-thing has a new meaning. There’s just almost nothing pure about it anymore (now I speak of the boy-meets-girl kind of love), there’s always the undertone of a more sinister reason why one person is with another. People love for money, for fame, for a piece of someone’s authority. We love out of the need to just be with someone – desperate and needy. We love because we want good sex, or we want our friends to know that we have someone who calls us ten times a day. We love because she’s got amazing big buttocks, or because he’s the hottest star at the moment. And because we love for all the wrong reasons, it is hard to keep up with the jonses for too long. We fall by the way side. And there is nothing as painful, animosity as excessive as when ‘love’ part ways. You wonder, was it worth falling in love in the first place?

This kind of attitude is what affects other parts of our lives. Take for instance the turbulent political clime in Nigeria. It is as a result of selfish love – the love that has the most artful and malicious intentions. How we can continue to be raped by a set of people, who claim to ‘love’ us, over and over again is just beyond comprehension. And that is why I was happy that we stood to fight for our rights at the last Occupy Nigeria gathering which I was very proud to be part of. Now, even in the midst of that seemingly altruistic mission, we still heard that amongst us were people who were paid to stand against government. So all in all, our scripts were very different – we had the unwilling government, the fraudulent cabal, the hopeless masses, and the corrupt few (amongst the masses) who cannot take a proper stand on anything.

That is the script of life.

So what am I saying this morning? As you venture into the day, with hopes alive for a bright and promising day, know that what you seek is out there, but it’ll all depend on what your script is...and who your director is. Who is directing your path – a jealous lover? An angry boss? The crazy situations around you that cannot be put into words? Your own doubts?...or something bigger?

If you were given the opportunity to re-write the script in your hand this minute, what would you change in the paper in your hand? Would you trade your front-desk job downstairs for the big-desk job upstairs? Will you trade your college degree for motherhood? Would you trade your high-flying career to be somebody’s bride? What would you change?

We all have that opportunity to change our world. And that is what makes my heart bleed – the fact that we are so unaware how much influence we have on the path our lives take.

Make that decision to edit your script.

Good morning!

-          Adaora