TM Contest

Imperfect love [Entry 52]

TM Contest | 118 | 116 | , ,

Just last week, I, my dad, mom, brother and grandma were on our way to church when an old love song came on the radio. It was “you are my sunshine” by Jimmie Davis from 1939 or ’40; not sure. The most amazing thing happened; my grandma sang along the whole thing. I couldn’t believe my ears. This was pop music from her generation and she knew it.

And as much as I would like to make this about how some parents tell us not to listen to “circular” music like they’re all bad . This post isn’t about that; it’s about the lyrics of the song. If you don’t know the song, the chorus goes like this: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey, you’ll never know dear how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away”.

It’s a sad love song actually, the verse talks about: leaving, loving someone else after promising to love another, people coming in between, shattering dreams etc. Anyway, the song just made me think about how frequently that happens even today. You’d think we’d have figured it out by now but nope, 80 years later people’s sunshines are still taken away.

My generation. We, too quickly, forget that the reason why love exists is because we ain’t perfect. We all need someone to love us despite our imperfections and make us better (by imperfections I don’t mean negative/damaging behavior). And so after we forget, we chase after what looks like perfection from afar but up close and usually when it’s too late; we realize it’s the same old sh*t.

We leave imperfection for imperfection because we are not patient enough to grow WITH our partners into perfection. We’ve heard it a million times that  “the one” doesn’t exist, yet we keep trying to find them at the expense of what we already have. Literally going to sokoto for what’s in our sokoto. But I don’t blame us; if we never know what we have, how do we know to keep it, talk more of nourish it.

I wouldn’t know what was on Jimmie’s mind when he wrote that song but I think this is one reason why people leave people. There is no single sunshine. Thinking there is is how we’ll never know which one is which and keep jumping from one to another. If you find a sunshine, hold him or her down with everything you’ve got and grow into a solar system. Let’s stop doing ojukokoro!

This article was written by Adeola Mofopefoluwa; connect with him on IG here

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116 thoughts on “Imperfect love [Entry 52]”

  21. Oluwafoladami Olawepo · Edit

    You know like they say… “you don’t know the value of what you have until you lose it…”Many of us still go around looking for our sunshine not knowing we already have a star in our lives,only waiting for us to notice them…

    Reply
  22. Oluwafoladami Olawepo · Edit

    You know like they say… “you don’t know the worth of what you have until you lose it… ” many of us still go around looking for our sunshine not knowing we already have a star in our lives, only waiting for us to notice them.

    Reply

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