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TITLE: THE DILEMMA! By JAMES MURIUKI 09/13/07 |
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THE DILEMMA
Baraka had newly signed up as a Faith writer, green, anxious and unsure of what he expected in this community of seemingly veteran writers and think tanks of the world of books.
Occasionally he enjoyed playing about with his pen, piecing up a poem, a story, or say an article. He possessed dozens of untested pieces that had never appeared in any publication – not anywhere to be critiqued.
This day he sat behind the computer and logged into the World Wide Web, so slow and yet so unfriendly for his wallet in this side of the world.
Painstakingly he finally landed into the required page. Every minute counted and of course meant less of his credit though he’d literally done nothing much.
He couldn’t help but recall a TV advert he had seen earlier portraying a snail pace website service provider uploading a photo of a beautiful youthful damsel that eventually turns out to be an aged wrinkled faced woman by the time the job is done!
After the usual browsing, he decided to visit that yellow blinking site - the ‘writing challenge’ but ouch! There it was again - he patiently waited. From his seat he could see a large portion of the office back yard. He started to tap his foot and count the trees as their leaves and twigs swayed gently in the morning breeze as though to cheer him on, ‘hold on son, something is in store’.
Is it going to work, or, may be that disgusting page will pop up – ‘the page cannot be displayed!’
And then, you know that scale at the bottom of the comp that tells the uploading speed and magnitude, it just couldn’t any make further progress!
“Oh no! Not now”, he lamented moving uneasily on the equally unstable chair.
That scale hung on there as though laboriously trying to roll away a stubborn immovable rock. He stood up and walked about the room wondering whether to abandon the entire procedure or to give the web ample time to ‘make a hastier decision’.
But…what?
Every ticking second mercilessly bit deep into his meager credit!
“I’ll stop” he thought, “no but I desperately want to participate in the ‘challenge’!”
He bent over the screen, his hand on the mouse and his eyes gazing blankly on the frozen page.
“Stop the web, wait, stop, wait, stop, wa…” as the dilemma lingered on a more intensified battle raged within.
“If I exhaust that remaining credit, I’ll have to wait until I top up again and who knows when? Today, tomorrow, next week…may be I have no chance for the writer’s challenge this week. And who knows…”
He was confused.
And then all at once without prior notice, BLACK OUT!!!
All went quiet besides the chirping birds outside and a notorious fly that unexpectedly flew into the room like an agent of mockery.
As he quietly sat there thinking and wondering at the same time, a sweet melody, a scripture bubbled up from his heart breaking out into a song,
“Always be joyful.
Keep on praying.
No matter what happens,
Always be thankful,
For this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
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