CONTENT ONLY

On one of my visits to a friend’s house, I went towards the kitchen and I saw two sacks full of empty can drinks. I was amazed at the quantity I saw and I asked her how come they consumed all these. I cast my mind back in those days when only rich men consumed can drinks. Rich and busy men. Men that didn’t have time to wait and drink from the glass bottles which needed to be returned. We the elite-to-be were not only drinking from bottles, we could hardly even afford it.

One thing that was striking about those glass bottles was not the “29cl” or “35cl” that was always stamped atop but the inscription that always read “content only”. I didn’t understand what it meant. My duty was to go on errands to purchase the bottled drinks and hang around hoping that the dregs of the drink would get to me. Many elders where never sensitive to my hanging around but some were “in the spirit”.

I later got to understand that “content only” meant that the money that was paid was for the drink alone and not the bottle. No wonder we always had to go with empty bottles or leave some money behind when buying the drinks, to be collected when we returned with the bottle. It was clear that nobody valued the bottle above the content. Once the drink was absent, the bottle was treated without much regard. The content had the core value.

I have watched how the distributors treat the empty crates. They threw them about and never really cared so much but when they were heavy with contents they were treated more carefully and definitely this was when they could exchange them for money.

Most times in life we value the container above the content. We take time to paint and adore our bodies. We sew dresses that give the impression that we are more than we really are. We take so much care of the body, eating, giving ourselves pleasure and making sure that our bodies are pleased at all costs, neglecting the content therein.

We overlook education that feeds the mind, we neglect meditation that deepens our consciousness, we never give time to things that would benefit our spirit and soul but we take time to groom our bodies daily. It saddens me how many pretty girls do not know the value that should be imbibed in a woman or how many young men breed ignorance, exalting material possession above the wisdom that should be embedded within.

We dream of cool cars, expensive phones, fashionable dresses, posh houses, extravagant parties and more. When it comes to daily study, mental exercises and learning new habits, we recline to our ignorant disposition and refuse any conscious effort to improve.

It is no longer news that the more you admire a car or a phone or any gadget for that matter the more time you waste because before you are done admiring, something better is in the market and something far better is in the offing.

I know how it feels to wear a new uniform, or to look presentable in a tasteful suit. Please don’t even ask me what it feels like to have the latest smartphone or a rated laptop in the tech market. Definitely, everyone feels the flow of adrenaline once in a while when something new encounters us.

For me, I think it is worse. I lost good sleep dreaming of the first day I would drive a car, I had a heartbeat skip when I got my first phone, I lost both food and sleep when I discovered new concepts in programming, in fact I have lost more than I can count admiring the many tasteful things that a man’s desire can reach and acquire yet I know that all these pass with time.

We had a TV that never showed the colour of your skin, much more the dress you wore but now TVs don’t need remotes and yet they run all through the hours of night and day and they show colours in hundreds of shades. Once we could only call with a call card in a mighty phone, now we can call two places worlds apart without a phone.

Technology would increase in concept and get better. Medicine would do more than we expect and elongate life if possible but one thing is sure, all these would pass and pass away. I once thought common entrance examinations were hard, then the junior and secondary school examinations, then my higher institution examinations, then facing the real world. At all these different stages I encountered challenges that made me think this was the toughest times but I have lived through them and I have come to realize that life is always in passing phases.

Whatever we clamour for today would be obsolete tomorrow and so holding unto anything so strongly would only lead us to disappointment. The content however lasts more than the container and is valued more. The container can be redesigned and refashioned but the content is what we all seek after.

I have learnt to invest more in myself than my desires. I have learnt to invest more in what would outlive me than what I live on. I have learnt to go more virtual that visible because what can be seen would not last as much as what cannot be seen.

Your investment in content may not be appreciated now but in time it will because in the long run what counts in not what you really stood for, it’s what stood for you after you have passed on.

Container is trend, content is legacy

Luk 12:15 Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.“ (MSG)

Mar 10:45  For even the Son of Man came not to have service rendered to Him, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for (instead of) many. (AMP)