As if the rains read me yesterday, it poured down heavy in many parts of Lagos today, first in the afternoon and then this evening. Glory be to God for the cool that came with it. The heat won’t go off entirely soon, though!
When we fully enter the rainy season, we should expect that it may rain longer than usual and floods may be more. Reason – climate change again!
Meanwhile, yesterday a World Happiness Report was released and the Nordic countries are still on top, USA dropped to 23, and Nigeria is 102. My worry is that the report revealed that the younger folks are less happier than the older generation.
As if to confirm, a Ghanaian media conducted a poll on social media asking if people were happy to live in Ghana. Of course who is on social media than youths, and most of them responded either in the negative or that they are just managing the country.
The fact is Africa might be tougher due to the record of bad governance but you can’t rate your happiness on the measure of external factors. By all means, we should get involved in politics and governance and make impact in any sector of life we find ourselves, yet your happiness should not be on those things.
Is it easier for the older folks, I doubt. If you think it was easier for them when they were younger, listen to music from 20,40,60 years ago, hear them share their experiences. When you learn that some of them went to school on community support, you will be happy. When you hear that they had to walk kilometers to attend primary school, you will be happy. But it seems they have built resilience to live and be happy through it all.
Every generation will have its own challenges. Build resilience and keep living. Make up your mind to be happy wherever, whenever, however because ‘tough times don’t last only tough people do’, I conclude with Robert Schuller’s famous quote.