Know Your Friends
As a disciple of music, most notably Reggae Music, I am well versed in the culture of the dubplates that DJ’s worldwide crave for. For those who don’t know, a dubplate is a personalised song, crafted specifically for you that tells your audience that you are connected, that you are in the circle. I’ve been blessed with some classic dub cuts over the years, but there’s one song that has always resonated with me, it’s called “Know your friends” by Chevaughn.
“Know your friends, they know your secrets” – Chevaughn
This song takes more significance in light of some of the crazy stories coming out of Kenya at the moment. The more these stories appear, the more it is becoming apparent that we don’t actually know the people that we hang out with. As I get older, the more I value the true friendships that I have been blessed with over the years. I work in a field that requires me to interact with literally thousands of people yet it’s the 3 or 4 people that I call my true friends that give me the most joy.
For me, it’s inconceivable not to know what my friends do, where they live, what their hopes, dreams and passions are. How can I celebrate their victories if I don’t know what their goals are. How can I support their passion and purpose if I don’t know what drives them?
Social Media has devalued the word “friend” – Check your Whatsapp groups right, how many of your “friends” in your various groups exist in this space where you don’t actually know the basics of their day to day lives? What are they going through? How are they living? You don’t care until they leave the group in a huff, usually because what they are going through in real life has affected their ability to partake in a faceless group dynamic.
We have learnt to hide the ugly parts of our lives and only post the parts that get likes, thats what social media has done to us. That’s why we need to dig a little deeper. If you care about someone, you care about what they care about. If you don’t know where your best friend lives, how they live and how they make money, yet you’re willing to turn up whenever they splash the cash, when shit hits the fan you bear an element of responsibility.
Prince said it best. (From 1.20 seconds – but just watch it all)
“a real friend or mentor is not on your pay roll, a real friend or mentor care for your soul as much as their own”
Know your friends.
Nick Lare
October 9, 2018 10:45 amHey Gmoney, your posts are always inspiring. I can relate to most of them specifically ‘friends’ most of them are not real, they only take advantage of what you have but once they feel they can’t depend on you they mute. I’d like to hear your story on how you managed to control your anger I heard you talk about it on radio. Thanks for blessing some of us with those encouraging posts on your blog.
Peter Thomas Baraka
October 9, 2018 2:30 pmYour articles are short but they carry Powerful messages. Bless
Emmanuel Kayi
October 9, 2018 4:39 pmTrust when I say true friends nuh stray
Francis Kamau
October 10, 2018 5:41 pmCan’t agree more
Martin Mutahi Njeri
October 24, 2018 4:49 pmI got a thousand and one “friends” yet i go through hell like they never are or even there. There are times i go through my contacts and i almost delete every single one : i cannot tell what holds me back. Surprisingly, i have come to connect and share with people i would not have thought we would share not a roof but the same breathing space. We share and help each other out. We are growing, which is key to almost every aspect of humanity.
Let’s Know Who Our Friends Are.