Morals by experience.

      ' Experience is the best teacher ' was my favorite tutors way of initiating us into a world where Nothing is as it should be.  It was her way of saying indirectly(what She didn't dare say directly) there is ' what should be' and ' what is '. As a student of the academy of experience, I cannot begin to tell you the numerous jaw dropping topics I've had to put up with, but I shall share with you my favourite lesson; morals. Focussing on the three I learnt best- Honesty, humility and chastity.
        As humans we are born honest. You are expected to tell the truth, always. Any less qualifies as a lie. Simple. That was before the  experienced class revealed an alternative called being ' straight forward '. When we want to divert funds, When you tell your boyfriend you shall be travelling with ' uncle '(to whom you are not at all related) as you pack your bag for the weekend.  It is not dishonesty, you are not a liar, You are simply not being straight forward. We understand that to be dishonest is to lie, but you see, to not be straight forward is to lie 'sometimes'. It is when you tell people what they want to hear, as often as necessary. Dressing up a lie to look as close to the truth as possible. When the wind of truth blows by, You can carefully point out that you are not a liar 'you were only not being straight forward' .
      Humility though is a little tricky to understand. It is dependent on variables such as, position and statements of account.  The rule is simple. Be humble to those above you and let those below be humble to you.  We are modest for where circumstance has placed us ' that Same old condition that unjustly bent the crayfish '. As we rise higher, we are not expected to be humble but to humble. A powerful man knows no humility'. He was humble once ,that is enough. When he looses power, he shall be humble again. Till then, he shall oppress as many as he can with his starched 'agbada' ,beer belly and convoys. The smart ones would stand in line to ' kiss ass' for favours. Statements like ' I used to be humble ' are allowed . After all, Humility is a moral for the ones who intend to be powerful and the ones who have accepted they may never be.
         ' I'm sexy and I know it ' I believe there was a period When that kind of confidence could get one mercilessly stoned to death. I cannot place where exactly in the time line everything got So sexed up. Expecting morality is like waiting for rain in the desert. You may find it sometime, but almost never. sex sells everything, from music to mouth wash. But there's a twist. Everything has to look moral. If it's happening behind closed doors and in locker rooms, it's not So bad. ' not So bad ' we forget is still not good. Chastity is also gender sensitive. It is to women what white is to rice, as a man it's all right to be loose and immoral. The man must err but the woman shouldn't dare.
       Obviously, what is good for the gander is not always great for the goose and our morals, sadly, hang on the peril of circumstance and conditions. The times have changed and our sense of right and wrong changed with it . Like everything else in life, we made them more comfortable. That in the end is ' what is '.