Traffic Jam:

There are days when we need an explanation as to why there are many cars on the roads and why they seem to be immobile.

Theory One:

The owners have returned from villages and the excitement to drive their cars has got a hold of them.

We all experience moments when everything seems to be out, out of line for us and no matter how much we try, we simply cannot push it through. During day light we fight with traffic that comes in against us, and when the night falls in, we fight the invisible traffic. Thoughts and memories, questions and experiences gone, the what should haves and what shouldn’t haves. When we look at where we are, the road is congested and we have no where to go even when we seem to have all it takes to get there, we are constrained by both what lies ahead of us and what lies before behind us.

Theory Two:

The people are scared of pre and post election violence so they run home quickly and then they all end up in one place.

Then we try to take initiative, we make a move to rid ourselves of this ugliness in which we find ourselves. We realise that we can do something and so we step out of line only to discover that many more have thought as we, they have set their hearts to doing something about it. The result, is a sort of new jam, we are not necessarily moving in the desired direction even when we thought that with our new move we would. We may console ourselves with the fact that we did something about our situation that we did not wait like everyone else, but then where did it lead us? Our fight for our rights, our endeavour to be the change and everything that we believed in, kept us in the same place if not worse.

Theory Three:

An important dignitary is visiting the country and all roads are blocked.

So, frustrated by everything, we decide to blame it on a matter beyond our control. We believe that in this case all we should do is wait till the higher power should help us move. In the meantime we can all wait in our cars and watch time pass by. Other people may at this point just go home and totally abandon the whole journey. Isn’t such the nature of life, we are baffled by something and we are not really to blame. We made the most perfect plan with the best of intentions and then look, some thing happened and we have nothing to do about it.

Theory Four:

We can take a walk to our destination and call a loved one to keep us company as we walk.

When you think about this, it’s not really a theory, it’s an option and we all have many of these. When we are surrounded by what has hindered us, we could chose to realise that we shall not arrive at the desired destination as and when we wanted, but that with us lies a solution that may seem slower under normal circumstances but fast enough, considering the prevailing ones.

The journey through life to the many desired destinations was not meant to be walked a lone. The challenge is to realise that we can have the wisdom to make slow but sure progress, to realise that many times the resources we need are the people we already have and that all it takes is calling them to your journey and the support needed is with us.

To have the wisdom to realise that it’s not only the first vow, but all the subsequent vows combined that will keep us committed to the journey we set out to. That we are never too weak to hold a moment if only we know exactly where we are going, and that attention is not held by beauty or strength but by presence, as the presence of a baby, so fragile and yet totally felt.

At the end of it, we shall realise that the fight for our rights, the excitement without reason and the party of pity with no analysis all fall short of both truth and wisdom and that God is both, to present our plans to Him, is to have both.