Oh! Do you know I forgot that today is the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by al-Qaida operatives?

You forgot?

That’s what I just said.

Why did you forget?

Why did I forget? Don’t you forget things yourself? Please cut me some slack. You know I live in Nigeria, where some kinds of things are happening at a dizzying pace that many persons have activated the intentional forgetfulness mode. For your information, I belong in that category.

Mm. Intentional forgetfulness mode.

Is it the first time you are hearing the word?

It is not my first time of hearing the word. I know it is a strategy to keep one’s sanity but I am worried

That is not something new. You are always worried.

I am serious.

That is also not something new.

Since you want to make this a joke, I will shock you.

When did you join the E-shock you gang?

I joined the E-shock you gang when you activated the intentional forgetfulness mode because certain kinds of things were happening rapidly around you. When you failed to realize that intentional forgetfulness is some kind of sleep. Some kind of blacking out. Screening the mind off certain kinds of information. You must see this phenomenon as a kind of sleep. For indeed, when you sleep, you ‘screen off’ from this side and enter into dreamland. The Wise One did say that it was while men slept that the enemy sowed tares among the wheat.

You truly want to shock me

Not in the way you think

I’m listening to you. Wait a minute, have you considered that many have adopted intentional forgetfulness as strategy to deal with today’s information overload? And not only because certain kinds of things are happening at a dizzying pace?

You’re coming home. You may now see why I am worried. What if all the certain kinds of events happening at dizzying pace and information overload represent a strategy to make you sleep, in the sense that you screen off completely certain kinds of information? Information that may reveal valuable intelligence about plans to undermine your security?

Please don’t take this into the realm of conspiracy theories, I don’t like that space

Neither do I. But I am worried about the other side of the intentional forgetfulness paradigm, regardless of its cause. Remember it was ‘while men slept’ that the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.

Are you saying we should not sleep again?

You know that is not what I am saying. We must sleep of course, but not every kind of sleep. We must begin to audit our sleep and remove every sleep of death. I am saying we should not sleep the sleep of death any longer

I don’t understand. Yet you sound like you know what you are saying. What can I do if I don’t want to sleep the sleep of death?

Engage the services of the only One who neither slumber nor sleeps?

How do I do that?

Pray