The Deadly Sin of Sloth — POB Word of the Week

Following the definition by the Merriam Webster, sloth simply implies disinclination to action or labor. Spiritual apathy or inactivity. In essence, sloth is synonymous to laziness, idleness, failure to exploit one's gift/talents. To me, being slothful hasn't really done any good to humanity, however I consider the person in particular to be the one to literally gain — he also stands to loose a lot. By not been able to utilize one's gift — as a result of being lazy, the need/service that could have been fulfilled will remain unattended to. That need not been fulfilled means that humanity isn't gaining anything, while not doing anything at all saves the person the energy and relieves him of the stress — he's the one gaining here. Furthermore, he stands to loose in the sense that the reward of utilizing his gift in fulfilling the need won't go to him.

To illustrates further, I would like to share the experience I had with a bus driver in Benin City (Edo State, Nigeria) on Wednesday (24/11/2021). I entered Biggie's bus on wednesday night going to Technical Junction. Before entering, there was a guy that hailed him, he asked the guy if he's going towards his direction but he didn't respond, Biggie got pissed off and started ranting. In his words: "you people won't stop begging, go and hustle, you said no, don't worry soon you will understand the implications clearly." Afterwards, he started telling me his life story, as I was the only one in the bus.

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To summarize, Biggie is the type that refused to go to school, learn a skill or do anything at all to make a living as a young boy. His mom tried everything in ensuring her only son (among her children) has something generating him incomes while she is still alive but all Biggie did was squander everything. He kept on inpregnanting different ladies. However, Biggie realized everything when his mom was no more and no one to cater for the three women he impregnated. It was already late by then. He ended up becoming a bus driver — of which his son told him one day that he wished he was never his father. Even Biggie himself wasn't proud of what he turned out to become, as he wasn't living fulfilled.

The above short story of Biggie is the a good illustrations of the positive and negative sides of living a slothful life. Growing up, he enjoyed the rewards of being slothful, as he never gets to do anything, he lives a stress-free life and enjoys his comfort zone,after all, he always eats whenever he returns home. The other side of his slothful lifestyle is that he isn't living a fulfilled life.

I conclude by saying that the life lazy of person always ends in regrets. He will one day sit down wishing he never wasted the times that he wasted. Hence Sloth is generally a sin, not only to humanity but the person in particular. Humanity will his his talents while he will miss the rewards of having those talents.

Thanks for reading!