Fond Memories

This day stands out in my memory. I trudge down a prominent highway of my Lakeside City in the crisp of the morning and I bump into him, almost unannounced. 

"Hey you genius boy, what was your name again? You have grown into a full man - so fast!" He is still soft spoken. 

And before I gather myself, he has thrown in two or five more lines, "Why did you come back from the US so fast... or was it Switzerland? Or did they deport you? You know they do that a lot.... bla, blesh, blab..." People hardly change, I wonder.

I grin all this time. I feel like backing off but I decide to man up. So I intentionally prolong the hand shake as I back-peddle towards this restaurant to my back left.

We choose a corner table for two and a coffee crash ensues amid other really interesting catch ups that make me miss High School. My principal was a jovial, well comported fellow with noble and comely ideas. But I also remember his spanks and smacks that could pair up into day-mare for form four students who wouldn't toe the line. Yes, he was  a Geographer, I remember - a subject in whose A earned me a waiver of all my fee balances and express clearance! This is why I appreciate such people...

.... but that wasn't about all in high school. Now that I met my former principal in the city, more fond memories came my way: Fort Jesus, the old form one block,Tom Mboya the notorious dormitory, the really hilarious happenings at the School Assembly, et cetera. One would  readily dismiss these as relics of the past, but pardon me if thou wilt for the memories are way too fond!

You know, Usenge High School is one of these well endowed schools of Nyanza, located in Usenge Beach along the shores of Lake Victoria. Fast forward, this specific day, the form four students decide not to use tap water as is custom. On the contrary, we march out of the main gate. Lawless. Careless. Once out, we sprint down the slope and in a matter of minutes we are at Wath Goye the nearest lake shore. We're game, we hardly come by such opportunities - common knowledge, so we just want to make the most out of it. We dive, swim, swam and do all manner of high-schoolic stuff... nude or half of it, whatever. We don't realize we have overspent our time, we don't realize the dusk is creeping in, just the same way we do not realize the school captain is making good use of his digital camera at the shore: zooming, focusing and capturing... (trouble), and the rest could well be history.

So as I meditate, I keep wondering which segment of my memory hid this eventful piece, thanks to meeting the former principal, but I decide to blog about it lest I lose it indefinitely. Smile if you care to:)

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This Word Love

A super sophisticated theme, only maybe - this is how....

You know the simplicity of love lies in the fact that it's only a four letter word. Very flimsy letters, if anything. Two consonants and two vowels, and that's about all. That's love for me, that's it for you too, I presume. Well, you realize love is a root word of several other lazy words like lover, lovely, loveable... the listing sickens. Not that am a pessimist, just that we make a lot of undue sophistication out of love the word that out-rightly renders itself unwarranted as we miserably fail at love the action. Be it filial, romantic or agape, miserable is how we fail.

I'm positive, somehow. Why? because love is a beautiful thing, an elegant word. Beautiful because it is an adjective, elegant because it is a verb. Otherwise I detest the emptiness of lip service when it comes to love. The adjective betrays the verb. It offers a scenic and colourful description of the thing, the damn thing, if you like. Pick some common case instances; "when I see you smile, my heart bursts into flowers...", "my love for you super-cedes this world and the next combined", and what nots. Indeed, all of you should agree with me as in a chorus that the adjective is such a tale-teller, more than just a describer. The flip side of the coin reads treachery. The adjective love is so cunning in our lips. It's a no partner fit for the verb love, for only one pertinent question made of four really simple English words work it down: Can you show it?

Now, enough of this chit chat, if only I lived in this planet (or is it still one?) then I would walk miles for the verb, yes the doing word. The action word. The acted meaning. I would stand tall for it, I would defend it. Not that I'm overdoing this thing, take love the adjective and love the verb for an en-sample. The former is empty and forthwith I would banish it. It is irrelevant given the latter, for isn't action describable? I perform an act of love and the onlookers will describe it as love. I say I love with no action accompaniment and the onlookers tag me a hypocrite. Now I'm certain you see where I'm founded.

Next time you utter this word, take an intrusive walk down your mind and establish whether it was the adjective or the verb!