YOUR LIFE, YOUR CHOICE
The entire universe is governed by some set of laws. To live by those rules or not is a choice. Unlike a robot, human minds are created with a will of their own to think, make choices and to act on those feelings, if they want to. What are those things in your life that you’d wish they are not there but seem to stare wide at you every now and then? Your life is a reflection of the choice you made at one point in time or the other. If you don’t like your life or the happenings around you, then, it’s high time to start making better choices. When the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, an American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers are tired of the traffic jam that usually marred our high ways, they didn’t just wine and groan about the economy. Instead they did something extraordinary about the situation by inventing and building the world first successful aircraft. Who would have ever believed that man will one day fly? The two brothers cleared the air and man’s doubts. You too can!
When darkness constantly disrupt and bring the activities of the day to a halt, Thomas Edison, an American inventor and scientist invented the long lasting practical electric light bulb. He is well known for his pioneering in electricity and magnetism and several other groundbreaking and astounding inventions. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and motion picture camera. I bet many surfers of the internet are still ignorant of how the World Wide Web became freely available to all! You just get hold of a computed connected to the internet and there you go. Little did they know that someone out there made it possible? Tim Berners Lee was that man. His discovery and invention of the http:// protocol for the internet made the World Wide Web freely available to every user.
How many of you have air-conditions in your home? This is yet another groundbreaking invention that many are unaware of the inventor, and why is that? Because majority of the human race have so much conditioned and trained their mind to be consumer of these products without striving to leave a landmark for others. It will surprise you to know that the inventor was actually an America engineer by the name, Willis Carrier. Does that name ring a bell? This single invention has solved one of the world most elusive challenges – controlling the indoor environment. When next you put on your air-condition either in your home, offices, place of worship or inside your vehicle, always be grateful for the brain behind it. Funny enough, many people today cannot do without it. Their homes, cars, offices, business rendezvous are all air-conditioned.
Another inventor whose invention we use almost daily is Henry Ford. He made it possible for man to convey his or herself with his belongings from one destination to the other. Henry Ford, an American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, though did not invent the automobile but developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, he converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. So, if you are not earning fat salary and yet you manage to have a home above your head and a car to carry you to wherever you want to go, then you owe all gratitude to God and to Henry Ford.
How many of you had to write letters to your families and loved ones because of the barrier created by distance? If you are opportune to be a literate, what then is the fate of the illiterates? Perhaps this and many others, may be the reason Alexandra Bell, a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator, had to put his long time research into inventing the first practical telephone. In case you do not know, Bell’s mother and wife were both deaf. If he were to be fellow compatriot of our time in this 21st century, he may be discouraged to invent something he will never ever be able to share or use with his loved ones. “His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia noted.
Many years ago in a small village in North Central part of Nigeria, where my late dad was posted to as a civil servant. We lived in a small house, where our bathroom and kitchen had to be constructed outside our home by my dad, who at the time is our Jack of all trade but master of one though. My dad can be described as someone with a creative and artistry skills. Whenever he puts his heart and mind into something, he will always find a way to come up with something. I remembered vividly about an incident that occurred while he was away for a course in one of the states in the country. (You may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned a word about my mum. During those times, she had to leave with my sisters for an appointment at my hometown.) So in their absence, we the boys are left to manage the home.
Something unusual happened in their absent. We noticed the presence of rats in the room, most especially at night. Funny enough, we will wake up to discover that our feet have been bitten by rats. How is that even possible? For rats to bite you without you knowing it? We later find out that the rats usually blew air into the feet of its victim when biting them to stop them from feeling the pain, and at the same time waking them up. So what we did was to wear cover shoe to bed every night. We had a choice to either look for their hideouts and block it or look for a way to kill them using chemical or something. But instead, we chose to let them run freely. This routine continues till our dad eventually returned and flushed the rats from their hideout. Perhaps, if my dad should have stay back for a long time, our homes would have turned into rats’ breeding ground.
GIANT LEAP 