Jack and Jill - The Edge of a Masterpiece by Sylvia Onyeka
by Alewa House, published 2 years, 7 months ago
Singer: Edge Golbador
Title: Jack and Jill
Genre: Soul Rock!
“Do you remember when . . .?”
It’s a trip back to the days when everything he did with his companion, Jill, provided joy.
He enumerates, in the song, specific escapades:
“We used to ride in Surulere
Take a bus to Ikeja
Spend hours on the Mainland Bridge on our way to the Island
To have fun.”
Jack further recalls his constant smiles even at things not worth smiling at (another evidence of the happiness experienced). Presently, though he only has memories of him and her and all they used to be.
There are times in our lives, when we look back at things we had done or created, and we extremely get one of these two kinds of feelings – regret or pride. Regret that we could have done better than we did; pride that we couldn’t have done it any better.
Jack opens up on his own feeling, regret:
“I’m not proud of everything we did
Just to get some Naira . . .”
It is remarkable, though, that most times, we do not see the outcome of our actions at the moment we do them. Almost always, we are carried away by the spur of present realities – “to have fun. Do you remember? It was fun. It was wrong. So wrong.”
One could tell that Jack’s regrets were triggered by something, just the way, we as humans might never know that you have something unwelcomed in your hair until someone else sees it and brings it to our attention. It is safe to say that the feeling of regret following man’s action is felt only after it is triggered by something. This trigger marks a thin line between then and now.
Then: When the action is presently happening
Now: When it has become a story
Only after Jack is made aware of his wrong, did he realize his so-called fun was a life he presently regrets living. He now calls it not just a story, but a super story adding credence to the fact that every human has a unique experience, a super experience.
“Wanna share my story; my super story.”
. . . A story constantly in a state of flux
To Jack, his then – the “fun” reached its end, and his now – regrets for the kind of life he lived was triggered by someone he met along the way:
“I met Jesus.”
Jack was given an opportunity to change his story.
Tomorrow grants us this opportunity. It allows us experience a new reality. It doesn’t always give us a new slate, but at least offers us a slate clean enough to rewrite old stories we do not like; stories that cause us to regret. We could now choose to rewrite this story rightly and share with other people or repeat the old story. This decision is left to each of our moral understanding.
Jesus was the tomorrow, the hope for a clean slate, that Jack got. He is willing to share this newly found hope with the ready hearts, with Jill if she pleases.
“Can change your story, like He changed my story . . .”
He names this new hope, this tomorrow, “home”.
Home, truly, is where the mind is at peace. Clearly, Jack no longer dwells in the past of regrets; he no longer beats himself up for not doing better then. He has found a home in the now, in Jesus. His heart is at peace. At home he feels peace – no more regrets – the mind is now able to think of positive ways to rewrite his story. Nevertheless, he invites Jill to share in this new story, this new experience.
We must notice that Jack’s “present” isn’t occupied only by regrets. It contains also a new story. Thus, we must always look to better times. Instead of dwelling on thoughts about what could have been done better, we must move on, we must cling to doing better. When, eventually, we have succeeded in rewriting our story, we now must share the good news with others, for it is in sharing our lives that we truly are able to hold one another accountable.
Edge Golbador, amidst the chaos and troubles bedeviling our world today, in this masterpiece “Jack and Jill” gives us hope that our future need not be created with the bricks of past misdeeds, rather can be forged in the fires of redemption and glory!
Enjoy!
One of my all-time best!
Written by Sylvia Onyeka
WRITER / REVIEWER / TEACHER
Featured Articles
Announcement: Video Upload Now Open to Alewa House Content Creators
by Alewa House, published 1 year, 9 months ago
Before now, content creators could only submit video requests via cloud providers to Alewa House by mail unlike for stories and album/singles. This will change starting from today, Alewa House content creators will now be able to upload and sell videos. Content moderation is still not going away anytime soon. This is because the company has a strong intellectual property protection culture.
Secondly, the updates also comes with a better designed dashboard with detailed analytics for each of content creators' digital assets. Alongside is location insight, since it is very important to know where content creators' audiences come from.
You will also find a detailed breakdown of your earnings on all your digital assets
Our sole aim at Alewa House is to give power to content creators and that is why it is deliberately designed from the onset to allow Content Creators to earn from followers. The first of its kind. Right! The more followers they have, the more money they make. Here is a brief illustration from Singer and Songwriter Edge Golbador:
Spread the word to family, relatives and friends that have digital contents that would like to sell or monetize? Spread the opportunity for content creators to earn for life.
We Need an “Elbow Room”: An Appraisal of Younglan’s "Elbow Room"
by Alewa House, published 2 years, 3 months ago
There is a philosophical argument which proposes that man is a product of his surroundings. The notion argues that the sum of man’s decisions, actions and inclinations are innately imprinted by the impressions he/she has witnessed. Although the counter argument proposes that some persons can transcend the complicated social conditioning of their society. It is inherently difficult to outrun the impact of the experiences that one has grown accustomed to.
Poetry has a way of baring out our impressions of the society. It is a channel that expresses the deepest sense of our vulnerability, our strengths, our fears and even our love. But sometimes, a poetic piece has the power to transport us into a place where we can both reflect and introspect on the choices, the experiences and the decisions that have led us to the moment that we are in.
Younglan’s “Elbow Room” begins with the familiar angst of a character in contradiction. The contradiction arises from the most familiar of places.
The human desire to navigate the pitfalls of the emotions of love and hate.
“Everything you seem to love now
You might just end up hating
And everything you seem to hate now
You might just end up loving
So I am hating the President now,
So that I might just love him later”
Across these few lines, a deeper story unravels.
It is a story that lays its soul bare over the rest of the poem.
A story of the contradictions of man’s experiences.
An experience which in some ways; has grown accustomed to the futility of the system.
When Younglan discourses the society in the way it projects its values, he replays the very plot of the sad society that we are immersed in. He discusses a society where hardwork is constantly being preached, but in hindsight; the most successful individuals are the persons who are steeped in the less than stellar ways of politics.
The contradiction in the experience is thus; while the politicians live a life that is different from the one the masses experience, the masses still lie in awe of the politician who continues to pillage the values of the masses. The politician has no restraint. His lack of restrain, by default creates a sublet of identities. It creates the “collaborators” who are content to wallow in fear and live in the status quo. The second group is the one he describes as the ones that might become “monsters.”
There are other contradictions within the story of the Have and Have Nots that he projects.
For instance, when he talks about getting guns, his answer is thus,
“But if we all get guns
Then we all might be gone soon”
Or when he talks about the state of the poor, he says
“The earth has had enough of the poor man’s blood
These days, it regurgitates it even,
For it thirsts for the blood of these bloodthirsty politicians, so”
Up until this point in the poem, the biggest question had been what direction the poet wanted the story to go to. The end goal was not to just offer up the state of contradictions within our society, or to just highlight the experiences of the masses who suffer inexhaustible hardships while politicians loot, pillage and walk away.
The end goal was something more subtle.
A certain kind of defiance that wiggles its way out of a dilemma.
Younglan projects himself as an outsider on the inside of a society that offers him as much contradictions as the one he battles within himself.
When he plays within the fringes of love and hate at the beginning of the poem, he found himself choosing to decide upon a route that will end in an outcome that feels the most secure.
His decision is to approach the tougher end of the contradiction first.
His experience and the nature of the society he has grown in, makes this a herculean task.
But it is a task he can maneuver because he has found a way.
The way, and in the end, the “safe space”, lies in the manifestation of the people.
Ever since I listened to the poem; my greatest question had been what the elbow room was.
The truth is, the “elbow room” is a free scope. An adequate space for work or operation; when it comes down to it, the “elbow room” is every individual deciding to choose what side of the contradiction they will prefer.
What Younglan has succeeded in showcasing is the binary of society, where action and consequence is deeply visible.
This is the part of the story that we sometimes fail to see. Every line of the poem is in constant conflict with the next because every line is a consequence of the next action. The politician, the collaborator, the masses who may become monsters, they are all deep psychological products of the society that they are familiar with. Their actions and decisions, whether dictated by love or hate, remains inherently dependent on the experiences that they witness.
The impact of that decision will decide how every individual unites under a common protest, a common election. The revolution in the end is for the common man.
The man in the streets may feel imprisoned by the way of his society. That is only for a while. He/she will find his/her free scope. And when he/she does, the revolution will be as they always say “televised.”
“Elbow Room” is not a typical poem that allows you to be outside of the experience. It drags you in because it speaks of a familiar space that we all understand.
From the moment Edge Golbador’s Falsetto warms over the sweet chords at the beginning, and he wails those enchanting cries, you are drawn into the experience that suggest that whatever is being said requires your mind to be at peace.
The society we survive in is burning into its nadir.
From the deepest hooks of oppression, we must find an elbow room to move into our own truths.
Maybe this piece is a rallying call to us all.
What is your elbow room?
Reviewed by Elijah Abuni Peter
Listen or download Elbow Room by Younglan for free.