To what extent?

Hi guys. I am sorry have not posted in a while. I hope to be consistent from henceforth. Enjoy!

______________

"Good morning". "Welcome to church". "Have a great service." The greeters greeted Nkechi as she stepped into church on a beautiful Sunday morning. She arrived for the second service a bit late even though her initial plan was to attend the first service. As she walked briskly into the main auditorium with her black purse under her armpit, she was directed to a seat by the ushers. On getting to the row where she was supposed to take her seat, she realised that the seat was a tad too close to the air conditioner and as a result of this she took the next available seat, making the seat to her right empty.

Four guys came after her and the row was filled up except the empty sit. Just as the fourth guy was about to sit behind, the usher realized there was an empty sit beside Nkechi and directed the fourth guy to it. And that was when it all began!

The fourth guy whom she choose to call Debo had a terrible body odour. It was really bad! Nkechi contemplated standing up and was about to when she noticed everyone around had stood up and relocated. She then had to stay put till the end of the service because she felt sorry for the guy. Standing up would have made his predicament more pronounced as almost everybody else had left. She imagined how he must have felt when everybody else stood up as he sat. She wasn’t convenient but yet she stayed. 

It is from this incidence I draw my question which is: To what extent should we inconvenience ourselves to make others comfortable? 

Well, I think it is relative to individuals and the situation on ground. Even though there is no particular scale of measurement as to what extent, we should just ensure balance. Although, I agree to a proportion that we should ensure that we please ourselves and do what makes us happy but there is also nothing wrong in inconveniencing ourselves a little in some cases.

While growing up, there were a few cases where we had only a meat in the pot and at the same time a visitor. We would have to give the visitor the meat and eat our meal like that. After all, it was our house and when we had enough meat we would all conveniently get one or even two.

My point is this, though I support the school of thought that says inconveniencing yourself at the expense of others is not advisable. I also believe it wouldn't hurt to make exceptions in some cases. After all, you more familiar with yourself and you know you can withstand some things that might crush the other person or you can give up some things the other person cannot do without. We must however ensure that the price we pay for inconveniencing our self is not foolishly expensive, cannot cause lasting damage and is not detrimental to our future.

Well to my story above, when asked, Nkechi said she wasn’t sure if she would do it again as she did not enjoy the service at all as she had to battle with Debo's body odour.  In her own words she had these to say. “I wasn't able to listen to the message and gain maximally from the service. It was a terrible and distracting odour but I couldn't bring myself to stand up. What kept me glued to my seat was the fact that everyone else left and he was all alone. I felt sorry for him and just didn’t have the heart to leave. Thoughts of whether to call him aside, speak to him about it and offer advice came but I wasn’t sure whether it was in my place to do so. I just ended up praying for him".

What do you guys think? + Is it advisable to tell a stranger he/she has body odour? They probably know already right? Enjoy your weekend.