The original story writer Jeff Lieber, and co-writer/director JJ Abrams was saddled with an almost impossible task — to turn their story idea of a plane crash on a deserted island into a series pilot in just 11 weeks.

ABRAMS: On the Saturday morning, we got a call. They were greenlighting a two-hour pilot. We had 11 weeks to write it, cast it, shoot it, cut it and turn it in. It was insanity.

Reading the cast and crew interviews on empireonline.com one can only imagine the backroom chaos that eventually become LOST — a mile marker in series film…

Addiction is a house built inside my head, but it has not always been there. At some point in a distant memory, there was something else in its place— not as imposing, not as soul sapping. It has been such a long time that I can barely recall what the landscapes of my soul looked like in its absence. You know those central city blocks that change so dramatically in such a short time, that one day you are driving past, and the next it feels like you are in unfamiliar territory. You struggle to remember the building on the…

Sitting in my car, parked in the driveway of our new apartment, I watched birds picking out worms from inside a decaying rat thrown out to rot. From the birds perspective, this was a feast and I imagined the worms were ramen — fat, juicy, plenteous ramen.

“These birds are having a time of their lives.” I thought. Then my thoughts wandered to the words of the preacher:

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

…

… and continues with listening to yourself.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom

~ Socrates

Who are you?

If you could describe each decade of your existence with a word or a phrase, how would you describe it? This is how I would describe my 4-decade long life:

0–10: Absorption

11–20: Discovering the World

21–30: Conquest

31— Now: Discovering Self

And yes! It took me that long to get to know me … perhaps, we should track back a bit.

I was a privileged child. We had little material possessions but I received love in abundance, and despite an early separation…

Your 8-year old has just finished a poorly played recorder rendition on a basic scale he’s been playing for the past 3 years. Do you applaud him as though he just finished a Carnegie Hall recital? Do you roll your eyes and say well done? or do you show him a YouTube video of a child his age playing Flight of the Bumblebee?

Dealing with giving my child feedback has been a challenge, and I imagine that other parents face the same challenges too. On one hand, I am tempted to treat their average performance as okay and applaud them…

.. and why is it so hard to say, “I don’t know?”

We’d just finished our final exams and everyone was excited to have ‘finally’ completed those long Undergraduate years. I and a group of friends hurdled together at the entrance to our architecture studio chatting and having fun, when one of us, Tolu asked the question, “So what next? What do you guys see yourselves doing after now?”

In that moment of excitement, happiness and relief, I was set back by this serious question and this feeling seemed to pervade to the rest of the group as the hearty…

Today, 27th February 2021, is one of those days when my life makes such profound sense that I am at peace — absolute peace. The kind of peace that assures me that if I died right now, every second I lived was worth it

And all this happened because of a phone call.

I had rushed out as early as 6am to visit a project site — partly because I don’t have much of a social life, and partly because the traffic situation in Lagos only favours the early riser or the night crawler — the periods in-between are total…