TODAY WITH DIDAM: THE FUTURE HAS COME

Growing up, I had all sorts of childish fantasies. First I wanted to be a medical doctor, then a lawyer, and then a pilot. But after an overdosed exposure to the church, I finally settled for being a Catholic Priest which I still didn’t become. All these dreams and aspirations were programmed to take place in what I and many other kids within my age range as at then were made to understand as ‘the future’. Those dreams of mine were castles in the air. I wished some Good Samaritan had helped put a foundation under the castles I built in the air.


Walking down memory lane, I still remember vividly a primary one Macmillan English textbook in which the opening chapter reads “Ali is a boy and Simbi is a girl”. I read this book about thirty years ago. Just recently, I stumbled upon a pile of books that used to be my primary school textbooks at my parents’ house. Among these books is the same old Macmillan English textbook for primary schools; book one. I scanned through the pages and still found ‘Ali’ in his same old school shorts. He is still a boy. Today I am a man but the textbook wouldn’t allow ‘Ali’ to grow into adulthood. ‘Ali’ will have to take maturity and responsibility of manhood by force, since he is yet to be seen as a ‘political adult’. It seems ‘the school’ has unconsciously put us in the bondage of dependency rather than allowing ‘education give us a liberation of self-realisation and taking responsibilities. I am sorry; but the ‘school system’ has failed. Right now, what we need is education. Don’t get it twisted. But if education is the key, then school could be the lock.


In like manner, books, speeches, articles, and words of mouth have addressed young people as ‘leaders of tomorrow’. This hasn’t changed; at least from the days of my childhood to the point of this writing. The most celebrated cliché on the youths is ‘future leaders’. The same circles of elders and rulers (maybe leaders) are still rotating political powers and positions; living the acclaimed ‘tomorrow’ and ‘future’ for the children and youths respectively. ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘the future’ means the same thing. The former, as used in this context, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition (electronic copy), means “the near future”. The latter, also as used in this context, according to Encarta English Dictionary, 2009 Edition (electronic copy) means ‘a time to come’. And it seems this ‘time’ has not come. When will it?


Some questions to be answered and addressed are: when is the future and when is tomorrow? Will tomorrow or the future ever come? Logically and by sheer reasoning, the future approaches us by the second. It comes as the clock ticks. Today was the future as at yesterday. Today was also tomorrow as at yesterday. This routine will continue to occur and reoccur. The truth is: the future wouldn’t come if all we do is sit and wait. The future is meant to be lived. It is a dream to be realised. Just like the castles I built in the air as a child in the first paragraph, the future needs some solid foundation to support it. It is beyond an expectation of things to come. It is not a time zone! The future has come!


The future is now! The future is a bull; take it by the horn, else it will ‘bully’ you. Whatever you visualize, do your best to realize. Pray and pay now; so you could play later or vice-versa.
Whatever you have to do, do it now. Start right away. Do not procrastinate. Else, you will be stealing your own time. We should do all we can, with all we have, where we are; right now. The future is here! Welcome it and embrace it, else it will continue to elude you.


One of the quotations of Nelson Mandela (former South African president, lawyer and anti-apartheid activist), says: “The past is a rich resource on which we can draw to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, leaving behind what is bad”. Real talk.

Didam Laah