One
So, this has been an exciting week, and not in a good way. I haven’t been able to keep away from the news, much to my own personal sadness, and have not prayed nearly as much as I am always meaning to.
The doom scroll was invented for such a time as this. I found myself shouting at one of my older children, “What do you mean you don’t know what’s going on? Are you even on Twitter?” The child looked at me and rolled his eyes. Of course, he’s not on Twitter. He’s seen me scrolling and has drawn his own conclusions. Also, I told him to stay away from social media and he has basically obeyed me.
Two
Someone on Twitter, towards the beginning of the week, asked people to retweet and say the first memory they had of a major news story. A lot of people my age named the Challenger Disaster, which I do absolutely remember because I was in the US at the time and the teacher rolled a big old television into our darkened classroom on a cart and hit ‘play.’ Like all the bored kids with their heads on their elbows, I did not understand why anyone had insisted on launching a teacher into space and decided then and there that that profession was not for me. What would they do next? Pack off the grocery store clerk (a much more interesting job I thought at the time)? Is NO ONE SAFE? But the one that really sticks in my mind in an emotional way was much later. I was at school in Cote d’Ivoire and the US had invaded Kuwait. I and the other kids in my dorm languished on the porch listening to the news on an old radio. I chiefly remember the sudden stone in the pit of my stomach, the sick feeling of dread.
Not being particularly fond of the US (was always being dragged away back to America to watch upsetting news stories and talk to strangers instead of living a peaceful and ordered life with my bike and my assortment of rescued exotic animals and was therefore always supremely relieved when the plane came to a screeching halt in the shimmering heat in the flat, glorious brown of Bamako) I could not understand why on earth the US would do such a thing.
About The Author
Harrison Okafor
editor
Judith is a believer, a lover of Christ and a Gospel freak person. A passionate gospel blogger and press writer. I work with GospelHitsNaija.net Media, no 1 Gospel music platform.
