Unsolicited Advice

When we were growing up, we were told all manner of do’s and don’ts. I bet most of them curtailed our freedom but nevertheless we adhered to those which we could and endured the flogging from those we never mastered the art of living by them. We grew up anyway.

Many years down the line we are still advised. Everybody older than seems to be so generous with advice, even our friends with their handful experience unashamedly tell us what we should or not. The one bunch of people whom I can fathom their advice is a stranger. You meet one along the street and he feels he should tell you that you are not dressed well, or that hair needs to be trimmed. If you dish out some dollars I would mind visiting a barber shop.

The urge to snarl at them gets the better of me, almost always. It has never sounded appealing at all, no matter how wrong I am. I am not at home and this is the only chance to act weird, be wild and exclusively from the reptilian watch of my parents. He should just understand from the look on my face that I am not hearing a damn thing he is saying.

There are some types of warning or advice that only fuel the urge to find out what is being denied over the other side. The lesson is never learned from mere hearsay, it must be experienced in order to be regarded lesson. The only shield is the hope that it won’t be too late to learn, as things may at times turn out be.

I always laughed when our high school teachers claimed that we were having the last free advice as we neared the end of our stay there. Who loved their advice anyway? I quizzed my friends and were all glad that those boring pieces of advice would finally trickle down the gutter. Those morning assemblies were a source of worry to some chaps whose concern was never near cleanness. Every day they were dirty from Monday to Friday, week in week out, for four good years. And they knew about it. Does that person need to be advised, really?    

Enter the real world. Folks went to display their prowess in leaking pieces of useless words in the name of advice. The respect for their age stifles a barrage of expletives. I hear pointing out weaknesses and dismiss them at the instant their lips stop moving.

I have never needed advice. i might need when my atm card fails but for the moment am content with what I have accumulated in the years that I have lived through observation. If you come with your advice, I might listen and even nod in approval but deep down me am saying ‘HOLY SHIT.’