AN OLD MAN’S TALK

Culture and tradition have imbibed in us, respect for our elders, taking heed to their advices and even crowning them “the wise ones”. For with the grey hair comes experience, wisdom and most times sayings that either make you wiser or shows how stupid one is when trying to interpret them. Even in the bible the use of parables and proverbs where foreign to some, which only showed their ignorance.
Most time when we are confronted with an old grey we always pay attention and nod heads in agreement even when we just don’t seem to make sense of what is said. (I feel they do it just so you realise their grey hair). This was the situation I found myself one day, here I was watching TV with an old grey, what was on was about weed (Egbo), he (old grey) then asks, “how do you feel about weed?”.
See me see question; in all honesty I answered: It’s not good for the health.
Old grey: how? Isn’t it used in prescribed drugs?
Me: because it doesn’t make one act right and think straight when taking excessively.
Old grey: how do you mean?
At this point I was stuck, because truth be told, I really didn’t know more than I had heard about it. (E dey make person high) how was I to explain highness?
Old grey: so to you it’s bad because you heard and because people say it’s bad.
Me: yes!
Old grey: so what would you say about people who smoke it and enjoy it and to them it’s good?
Me: emmmmm (scratching head).
Truth is before you can say something’s bad, its best to experience it, and if you see it’s bad for you, then you can say “it’s bad for you”. But don’t make the mistake of going about tell people that enjoy something its bad for them.
At this point, I was confused. I was thinking, killing is bad, does that mean I have to go out and kill before I realise its bad? I guess he was reading my mind, he said, it doesn’t apply when it gets to involve doing it to someone else. My next thought was sex, immediately he says for example, rape. Sex has to be consensual for it to not be bad. But when one party doesn’t give in, it’s bad.
Me: are you saying I can have sex so long as the girl agrees uncle?
Now it was his turn to scratch his old grey hair…lol
Old grey: I’m not talking about morally right or wrong, or ten commandments, talking about things we do to ourselves, example, most people that commit suicide are perceived as doing something wrong, to the suicider it’s good, a means to an end and when they do, they feel good about it, but when they don’t succeed they realise it’s wrong. Same goes for smoking, drinking, and every thing we tag morally wrong personal act. From there he went on to quote different proverbs, one man’s food is another mans poison, when a tree grows across into another mans land, it doesn’t make it the other mans own…(still don’t know how this applies), experience is the best teacher. So my question was, is he advising me to smoke weed? Or just trying to find out if I had smoked weed? I guess he really was saying i should have a personal opinion of decisions i make, experience things before I make an opinion, so does he mean I should try committing suicide and see the effects, good or bad? Or start doing drugs to know the effects so that I won’t come up blank the next time an old grey asks me same questions? I really started feeling dumb, since I really couldn’t understand his point. Not to look stupid I coined my own conclusion; keep your own opinions to yourself when you know you know nothing about something, don’t go forcing your own morals on someone else’s. Smart one right? Lol. Everybody has a reason for their personal actions, and be it bad or good, what draws the line of right or wrong is EXPERIENCE. So yes, experience is the best teacher. If you know you haven’t experienced something, please shut up when the experienced ones are talking. Experienced ones like old greys, let them do the talking and ‘we’ get confused cause we are all devoid of experience, and if you be smart enough you’ll pick up a thing or two, but if ye be stupid, you’ll be left confused like you are right now.