REPUTATION

              

I rear lots of birds in my compound, and they lay with time. I also have a puppy in the same space. My dog is cool, playful, and loyal, but it steals any eggs it lays its eyes on.

On several occasions I gave the dog severe beatings, only stopping when I felt it was getting too brutal and begin feeling remorseful. After the beating, it will still return, as said, to the proverbial vomit, in this case- the eggs.

I had chained the puppy, beat it with a stick, slippers, and all sorts of weapons. If I had the stomach I would have killed the poor dog myself.

Several weeks later another hen laid up to eight eggs, only for the eggs to start vanishing; three days and four eggs had gone missing.

I immediately sought out the little brown puppy with it's a big head, I hit it so hard out of anger and resentment, it produced a sound I had never heard before I thought it was going to die. "Good. Since I cannot cut your throat, this will do. You have murdered several unborn chicks, now it's your time to go." I thought to myself. If it were the hen herself, this would have been termed an abortion.

Funny, or sad, the dog wasn't the culprit: the hen laying the eggs was breaking and then feeding on the eggs herself. Talk about abortion. The day I caught her in the act, I felt ashamed at myself and sorry for the puppy I had wrongly accused, even wished death upon. Good thing I can cut the throat of a chicken.

The character people know you with lives after you- it sticks wherever you go. If you are known as a preacher, that's what you'll always be thought of as; if you have a reputation as a criminal, that's how you'll be known. Whatever reputation you've set can hardly, if ever be changed.

My puppy couldn't speak, and there was no way I could know that I'd been punishing the wrong person. If only its silence could speak for it. If you have to be present to defend yourself, then you need to check your character.

Keep a reputation such that your absence will vouch for you, one that your silence will speak for you; for if your absence convicts you, then your presence can do very little to acquit you.