You might have seen situations where people withhold the privileges due to others, not because the latter does not deserve it but because the former believes that his own chance of enjoying that same privilege tomorrow will be blocked.

Tomorrow seems so dear to us that we, sometimes, sacrifice our humanity today for a tomorrow that is far enough to witness many changes that can make our strive today less meaningful to explain man’s inhumanity to man.

If you have not been dressed down publicly before by someone of higher status, you will not understand the pain it attracts when you infirm another person, who looks up to you for direction, as you ridicule him publicly to prove a point that can wait for another day.

Bosses, sometimes, get carried away by the result they seek that they sacrifice the producers of those results when they reduce humans to objects that can be counted. When you correct, don’t destroy what you aim to amend.

Many times, sufferers of indignity from superiors draw strength from their lowest moments to make their stories worth reading but more often than not, irreparable damage is done to the self esteem of many others who cannot handle public shame.

Live, but let others live. Don’t suffocate them. Let your rod shape but not break the subject. Be the light that illuminates someone’s dreams but not the albatross that kills their joy.

If you are the one calling the shots today, you can still be firm but not infirming. You can be thorough but yet humane. Please, walk gently in the lives of others. Not all wounds are visible.

©️Akin Oluwadare Jnr
29 January 2024