But they left no ladders
A mere phrase of deception, whenever they say, ‘the sky is the limit’. It’s closest to the devil’s laughter on the sidelines, chanting you on to success.
Can I dream?
The closest we ever got to the skies was through our midnight fantasies that cave in around our cold crouches; rewarding us with the cheesy grease of manliness called wet dreams.
Why?
Because they left no ladders!
How do you ask me to aim for the skies while you order me to follow your footsteps that weave me through ditches and trenches? How do you deliver me 6 feet below the ground and whisper to my ears up above, to aim up above? How do you enslave me, feet in shackles and ask me to imagine freedom?
The deception
It’s funny the most ignorant people I’ve met in my young life are mostly professors. In a school of higher education labelled with a name of infinity such as universe; a professor is angry at his students for answering his/her question with an explanation how they understand it instead of quoting verbatim his/her words… they call students with understanding blockheads and crown genius those who swallow their regurgitations and spill them back out as they gave it. This is where knowledge runs stale; this is where muddling in the mud becomes wet dreams denoting the sky. Blindfolded by their incapabilities we’re forced to hang our skies just below their limitations. A future generation being brewed to know only less than our teachers will ever know.
Meet Daniel, a sound engineer at heart, whose soul blazes on keyboards and drums. Now struggling with addiction to marijuana and crack; imprisoned in a university to master the arts of biology by parents who never saw his sky as his ability to command instruments under his sweat. The only day I saw him pass a day without food, smoke, or crack was the day I asked him to create me an instrumental. Lord knows, I had to force him out of his seat to go grab a bite. But his parents couldn’t see beyond biology and so replaced his talents with meaningless ditches that swallowed him into the slavery of non-achievers instead of fixing him ladders to his own sky.
Reason they leave no ladders…
Cos they know no better! Inclined to the laws of defending what you have rather than the laws of exploring more than what you have.
The same law governing the hearts of these teachers of young people; afraid to try new things embroidered in their individual gifts but to follow the ways of old that promise us job security and acceptance in society.
The same law governing the modern day practice of Christianity where we stay in a well enclosed niche called ‘church’ securing a defined population called ‘church members’ from going back to ungodliness, a task we barely succeed, while we look on at atrocities going on in the world saying, Lord have mercy!
The same laws that once governed football; score a goal and defend to the end. Now that is a strategy of weak teams; for the stronger ones have discovered achieving a goal is not enough, for the sky is truly the limit.
They left no ladders; because they know no better.
Here are the teachers of this world, the teachers of the young, walking with their tails tacked between their legs. Living in the deception that, they know best and greatness reside in experience. They ignorantly chant us to a sky that hang below their limitations and never admit their bruises incapacitate them to be the decision makers for our fresh wings. They reached the point they’ve been captured into realms of impossibility.
Can we live, can we grow?
Not like you, but like our dreams. Instead of leaving behind footprints, leave us ladders to climb above you and soar beyond everything you’ve ever imagined.
It’s time to understand the only power you hold can only sculpt our spines to put us to our feet. You hold no power to make us soar beyond imagination so stop saying the sky is the limit till you leave us ladders. Make us believe our world does not revolve only around you.
To the young ones out there
There is no one greater, yet lived on this earth, the greater ones are yet to come so make for yourselves no role models, they are weaker than the strength of your dreams. Dream, build on your dreams within your dreams, let no one restrict your abilities to what they believe is best, cos the best is you.
Allow me to challenge your mind
Something I heard Denzel Washington say; Imagine you’re on your deathbed, and standing around your bed are the ghosts representing your unfilled potential. The ghosts of the ideas you never acted on. The ghosts of the talents you didn’t use. And they’re standing around your bed. Angry. Disappointed. Upset. “We came to you because you could have brought us to life,” they say. “And now we go to the grave together.”
So may I ask you same thing he asked; how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?
