TERMITE TERRITORY.

   So here goes…..FAMILY.

This is the essence of all our existence. Whether you are an orphan, abandoned or you believe you have the craziest fellows in your family and most times you feel like an outsider or adopted. Doesn’t  matter. Family is family and you ended up in that family for a reason. You might have no idea but everyone in your crazy or MIA family plays their own unique part.

Out of my extremely observant big eye…..i have witnessed the most dysfunctional families, the craziest and even the most broken and detached but when push comes to shove everyone magically styles up and puts all their differences aside to deal with the calamity, tragedy or issue that has risen against the family.

Not one family on this planet is perfect. NOT ONE! But the most admiral trait ‘family’ has is the fact that they’ve perfected the art of keeping their dirty linen and weaknesses to themselves. After all, all your issues aren’t anybody else’s business but yours so why share when most people literally do a ‘jig’ behind your back celebrating your issues. The epitome of green snakes in our green grass like I had so generously descriptively described in one of my previous articles.

Enough of the mushy stories about family. We all know family has the ability to break or build us and sadly there’s nothing we can do about it. Relax. (all y’all raising your eyebrows. I see you). I’ll explain. Time to expose the ‘termites’ in the foundations of our families’ proverbial ‘wood’.

So in most families we have;

 The ‘thief’ or ‘thieves’. That even steal from their own siblings,cousins,parents and the rest of the relatives given the opportunity.

The ‘drunkards/addicts’ of one substance or another and its completely controlling their lives.

The ‘school dropouts’ ending up as liabilities or burdens of one design or another.

The ‘gay/lesbian and even bisexual’. We can all claim there’s no problem with these guys but we know the generation that is our parents’ and grandparents’ are left with a bitter taste in their mouths. Especially in our african cultures. It is still a serious stigma.

The ‘hopeless communicator’. Never answers calls or respond to texts. Thus missing out on most family functions.

I could go on forever but none of the above is a heartache like…

The ‘termites’ in the family. These fellows are far worse than the hypocritical friends, colleagues and spouses. For the fact that they are family….they already have the upper hand of knowing things a friend wouldn’t unless you chose to tell them. But family members don’t have to wait for you to tell. Stories have a way of spreading like wildfire between relatives.

So the termites are far worse than the green snakes. Atleast with a snake no matter the type of camouflage it takes to….it loses its snakeskin. Doesn’t matter how long it hides waiting to pounce. Scientifically and naturally, it has to grow and when that happens it sheds its old skin. Which the cant camouflage anymore because it’s dead skin. It’s all white, off white, brown. It completely loses its ability to hide. So obviously in green grass that ought to stand out. (Stay with me people!)

Their counterparts the ‘termites’ are SPECIAL. Far worse than the shedding green snakes. Termites eat wood from the inside out. You won’t easily notice. And by the time you notice the wood is all eaten up and you have to incur expenses to get yourself some new wood though I would advice you on getting plastic. No hiding its defects. No animal or insect eats it. And it either breaks, bends or burns. Either way you get to notice its defect the minute it happens. Perfect way of life to keep out the termites and snakes of our lives. Right? I wish!

What do the ‘termites’ of the family do? They create mayhem. They weaken the loyalty ties within the family. They turn family members against themselves. My big question is……to what end? To achieve what?

How these ‘termites’ manage to sleep or look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me. Why would you go around spreading your family issues and weaknesess plus failures to outsiders? Just because its not you that the issue has befallen. Forgetting that our families define us to the outside world. Especially it being so judgemental, stifling and so ready to stick every individual with one stigma or another.

A nasty rumour arises out of nowhere about you amongst your friends and in the family…….we would rather kill a friend than simply accept it was either a sister or brother or first cousin who spread it. Most times we end up cutting people from our lives because of “he/she said”. We all got to learn something I learnt the hard way and cover your bases…..ask  just one question…”when all this was being said what were you doing or saying?” It is in human nature to do and say stupid things especially against a loved one.

With these termites I could go on forever…. But I know my distinguished readers are a sharp bunch. You get it.

Bottomline; we live in an era of man eat man. Survival being strictly for the fittest; mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically.  Although, physical strength doesn’t really count in the face of termites, green snakes, pigeons and despicable us. Sad fact. But it is what it is.

                                                Yours candidly;

                                                  Getty Uncensored.