What happened to our childhood curiosity of getting proof to issues?

From Monday this week, my four-year-old daughter has been harassing me about paying for a school trip that is due sometime next month.PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • To cut a long story short, I finally paid for her long-anticipated trip on Thursday this morning with her seated right by my side.
  • Like most learning institutions, her school does not accept cash, so I paid via Mpesa, and when I was done, I showed her the confirmation message, specifically the place that reflected her name, which she can read.

From Monday this week, my four-year-old daughter has been harassing me about paying for a school trip that is due sometime next month.

“Mummy, you know only Trevor and Africa are going for the trip because they are the only ones who have paid?” she informed me, tears already forming in her eyes.

I assured her that she would go for the trip because I would pay soon, but my fervent reassurance only appeased her until evening.

“Mummy, did you pay?” she demanded as soon as I walked into the house in the evening. Again, I told her not to worry because I would pay, which I knew was futile, because I knew that after an hour, she would enquire again whether I have paid – four-year-olds, I have realised, have a foggy concept of time.

To cut a long story short, I finally paid for her long-anticipated trip on Thursday this morning with her seated right by my side. Like most learning institutions, her school does not accept cash, so I paid via Mpesa, and when I was done, I showed her the confirmation message, specifically the place that reflected her name, which she can read.

“You see? I’ve paid,” I told her, relieved that I could now move on with my life.

“But where is the money for teacher?” she asked puzzled, beginning to look upset.

“Here is the money,” I said, pointing at the Mpesa message. I explained that she did not have to give her teacher money because I had transferred the money to the school’s bank.

It is at that point that she broke down and started crying pitifully, telling me, in between sobs, to give her money for the trip to take to school. Obviously, she didn’t understand the concept of Mpesa, or rather, electronic money transfer.

Reading her name on my phone meant nothing to her. She would only believe that I had paid when I actually gave her the money to hand over to her teacher.

At a loss, I asked her elder brother, he is seven, to assure her that I had paid, only for him to tell me that if he did what I was asking, he would only be lying to her because he wasn’t sure that I had actually paid. And don’t I keep telling them that lying is bad? He concluded. Excuse me?

Anyway, obviously, he too did not understand the concept of money transfer – the only proof of payment he knew was cash.

This incident got me thinking about the many misunderstandings and unnecessary enmity and antagonism we would avoid if we demanded this kind of proof, irrefutable proof that we can see, touch and experience, before accepting what we hear as truth. As it is, we adults thrive on rumours. Often, what we believe as truth starts with, “Ulisikia…?” (Did you hear?)

By the time the rumour, the hearsay, gets to the tenth person, it is so distorted, it has no relationship at all to the original message. It is as if we lose our curiosity as we grow, otherwise how do you explain our quickness to believe everything we hear or read, especially on social media, which is now our number one source of news?

Rather than research and question the truth for ourselves, or demand proof from the conveyer of the message, we are happy to go with the forwards, no matter how ridiculous they sound, in the numerous WhatsApp groups we are in, as well as other social media channels. 

Perhaps it is time we started reclaiming that curiosity we suppressed somewhere along the way to adulthood and re-learn how to question like children and demand to see the proof with our eyes.

We would make more informed choices, we would choose better leaders, and we would be courageous enough to demand accountability from them and call them out when they fail to fulfill their responsibilities. Most importantly, we will stop being blind followers. 

 

[email protected]; Twitter: @cnjerius. The writer is the editor, MyNetwork, in the Daily Nation