Raise your hand if you’ve ever been treated unjustly, unfairly, and inhumanely because you were broke-what I mean is that your account balance hardly rises above the minimum available balance with no deposits only withdrawals. It stares right at you dead in the face.
Raise your hand if the parents of the girl/boy you once loved thought you weren’t good enough for their child because you weren’t up to their standard, expectation, or class.
Money answereth all things. I didn’t realize the validity of this statement until I elegantly walked into a relationship…..BROKE. However, because this girl and I were madly in love (According to society’s standards, it takes madness to be in love with someone like me), our relationship lasted for five solid, romantic, and memorable….MONTHS. Just one problem, there was a great divide, and for me, that great divide was money.
Every love story should have a happily-ever-after ending (So I thought). Not to say the least, the likes of fairytales have made us believe in fairy godmothers, magic love potions, and enchantment. My own love story was beyond the romanticized era of Shakespearean plays or the elusive fantasy of fairytale animations. I was in love, and there was no magic potion to it, only looking forward to a happily-ever-after filled with the fragrance of roses and petals of honeymoon for the rest of our lives. We were going to do breakfast in bed and watch the moon through our windows all night as we waited for a shooting star to make the wish of two lovebirds. Just one problem, there was a great divide, and for me, that great divide was money.
You see, the girl I love was an epitome of beauty, a flagon of varieties of vintage wine because I could literally taste her whenever she was close by. My lover had just graduated from secondary school at the age of 18, while I was 25 and I thought we were the perfect match, a match made in heaven. We had the opportunity to grow in love. Just one problem, there was a great divide, and for me, that great divide was money.
This great divide gave me a consciousness of low self-esteem and an inferiority complex because I believed I was incomplete and lacking. How many of us have felt incomplete and lacking? How many of us know someone who is incomplete and lacking? Have we given others the consciousness of low self-esteem and inferiority complex by our thoughts, words, and actions? You see, we live life with a smile on our faces, but deep within some of us, and even most of us we know that we do not measure up in one way or the other, we know that there is a great divide, and society has made it undeniably glaring.
Back to the story of my lover and I, her mum discovered in the unlikeliest of manners and became infuriated, while her dad was breathing fire from his nostrils, ready to place my head on a spike and feed it to the dogs. How did I salvage the situation, you might ask? I didn’t salvage the situation, the situation salvaged me. I was the one that needed saving, not the situation. Deep within me, I knew it was high time to pay her parents an untimely visit and present myself like a lamb to the slaughter. Perhaps I may or may not return in one piece, so I signed my empty will that nobody would have. I choose the Toastmasters Pathway of Presentation Mastery as I sought to implement my communication style. As we conversed back and forth, her mother kept emphasizing how lucky I was that the Dragon-Dad was not having this conversation with us if not I would have melted away like wax. And boy was I grateful that he was absent. After a conversation that lasted more than an hour, I reasoned and came to the conclusion that the theme and foundation of their disapproval whatsoever was that there was just one problem, there was a great divide, and for me, that great divide was money.
How often do we create, promote and embrace a great divide among the human family? Do you know someone who readily establishes that there is a great divide and you both are not on the same level- someone that makes you feel small, minute, infinitesimal, and insignificant? Are you that someone? What is the great divide that you promote and embrace? Could it be your belief, gender, looks, intelligence, race, class, age, status, or money?
We are quick to forget that the walls that separate us could serve as the bridge that connects us.