Backlog 01: Guardian of the Flies
I was going through some of my old stuff, junk basically, clearing up the old to make space for new things and I came across an old diary I had, the unique thing about this diary, was that it wasn't the conventional diary that most people have where they write their daily experiences, my old diary was my mind, anything I thought of I wrote, quotes, ideas, concepts of things and so on, it showed anyone who cared, a glimpse of my mind in words, some of these works where unfinished. Seeing what my mind was some years back brought a feeling in me, at that time I hadn't come to the realization that I could or needed to share my thoughts with anyone who cared, I didn't have a voice, so to say, so when I saw this diary I had ideas and feelings springing up, and I thought to myself, “I should bring these ideas to life once more” sort of like waking them from an orbital hibernation. I have titled these writings with the general title of “backlog” followed by the official title of the article, I will be publishing them here as time goes on, I hope you enjoy the read.
I have taken the liberty to change some words and add in some sentences for easier comprehension because, for the life of me, I don't know what I was on or what I was going through when I wrote some of these things, I must say however that I am quite impressed with myself of 6 years ago and I pride myself to see that I have been on the right path as regards my writing and I am still walking that path with pride.
‘GUARDIAN OF THE FLIES.’
The word ‘guardian’ has a broader definition than just ‘watch over,’ the word and the concept behind ‘guardian’ encompasses broadly ‘stewardship’, that is to say, a person that has been given full right and authority over the property and affairs of another, this then means that a steward has the full right as the owner to take care, watch over, rule over and direct as the case may be the property of the one that handed the responsibility over to them.
A steward or guardian should then be a trusted hand to his master so much that the master has no doubt that the task of guardianship handed over will be carried out to the fullest capability as he the master would do to his property and affairs, if it so happens that the guardian falls short of his masters' trust, an equal resulting punishment should be metered out on the guardian for not equaling the expectations of the master in regards to the task given.
There is here the story of a father who loved his son deeply, provided all for his son and guided his son on right and wrong diligently how a mother hen would guard her eggs or her hatched chicks from rats and the claws of an eagle respectively, this father whose son was made a little differently from him in appearance had a servant whom he trusted so much, he had no doubt in the abilities of his servant in doing what he would to his son as regards training and upbringing. He (the father) one day had to travel on the settling of some affairs, and he handed the responsibility of the upbringing of his son to his servant who in turn now became a steward, until he, the father, returned after a while.
On returning the father finds that the steward had not kept to the end of their bargain and all trust the father had in the steward was misplaced, to the father's displeasure, his son had lost completely all that the father had over the year taught his son, the son had completely ‘forgotten the face of his father’ (metaphorically). Seeing that the guardian has failed in his duties, the question now lies, Who faces the long rod and staff of discipline of the father, the guardian or the son?
Would the father be considered responsible for handing over the affair and responsibility of the upbringing of his seed to another, whether they meet up to his threshold of ‘perfection’ in the task of raising up his son or not?.
To conclude our story, the father was disappointed to see that his son had gone astray in certain avenues in his life, he then decided that the son was to blame for not deciding what he should have chosen as right or wrong in those avenues, he then punished the son, and the guardian who was the spitting image of ‘perfection’ as regards his abilities in dealing the affairs of his master was free of any moral guilt for the failure of his duties.
The success of any venture is measured by the level of result, positive or negative, that has been achieved by the one who takes on the venture, separating the line between failure and success then is evaluation of the degree of positivity or negativity on the ‘success continuum’ with the weight tipping to either the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ parallel.
If a guardian falls below tipping the weight onto the ‘success’ parallel on the continuum he/she is deemed a failure and as such should receive the reward of a failure, the punishment now being, for his failure to accomplish the task entrusted to him, the punishment is to be carried out by his master whom he has short supplied his trust and abilities, if however, the master decides, for some reason, to turn a blind eye to his steward's shortcomings, the one whom the stewardship of the guardian was entrusted to, has the right to measure out his own judgment and or punishment upon the guardian as the case may be, his argument being, that the short-coming (failure) of the guardian is not by any calculative result his fault, but the fault of the guardian, in his inability to reach the expectation of his master.
It is only fair to say here that, the punishment of the shortcomings of one, should not be shared with another for the sole reason that the one who was at first the guardian should have known of his own inability to measure up to the standard of his master and not drag the unknowing innocence of the one who was entrusted into his care into the punishment of his resulting ‘failure’ in carrying out his duties.
It should be stated here, that it should not be held against the flies when they perch on meat left un-guarded by the guardian whom the butcher entrusted the duty of swatting.
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