The Gutter in Us: Becoming What Others Need to Thrive

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in gutters – Dwight D. Eisenhower

When searching the internet for quotes on Gutter, 99.9% of those quotes tagged it as an entity with a profane value, and I asked myself, “When will a gutter get its deserved honorable accolade?”

I am a poet, and when Gutter is used as a metaphor, it can’t be on an attractive note because it means the person or thing is smelly, dirty, and irritating. Nobody wants to be a gutter, and I don't expect you to be one. Just that we all need to play a look-alike role.

But if the gutter is not important, it won't be included in roadmaps. Most times, before a road is constructed, the gutter would have been completed. Why? Because they know the lifespan of the road is dependent on it. One of the major determinants of a good road is a suitable gutter.

The road will lose its beauty without a dirty gutter. The gutter does the dirty job while the road continues to be useful for beautiful purposes. The gutter will be large and high, dependent on the size and plan of the road. Just like Dwight said, the right and left extremes of the road are in gutters; this means the gutter is the much-needed balance any good road needs for it to be usable.

I have seen different definitions, but I have my own special definition. The gutter is an important low area designed to keep the road functional and delectable for its end users.

A well-constructed road without gutters is a waste of resources because stagnant water will soon create numerous random potholes. Even buildings without good drainage systems(gutters) will one day experience some kind of major damage. This is to show the relevant work gutters do in any construction projects no matter how irrelevant we may want to put them.

Humans are gutters; humans are roads. Humans need humans to survive the same way roads need gutters to survive, though many a human would never want to be a gutter once for the success of his or her fellow human. We all want this world to be a better place, but nobody is willing to play the role of the gutter. If you study the tracks of men and women who lead different revolutions for freedom, they all have one thing in common. They are treated like gutters.

Nelson Mandela spent 26 years in prison, treated like a gutter, for South Africa to be free from a terrible apartheid system. South Africa is a beautiful road today because some men became gutters and are treated with the utmost disdain. You need to read about Martin Luther King Jr and others.

Jesus singlehandedly played the role of uncountable gutters so that humans can become beautiful roads God can work and walk through.

We have someone who has done the dirty jobs for us or is still doing them. The level of potholes or mess you see in people’s lives is the lack or availability of a gutter-like personality. We will surely need to play the role of road and gutter concurrently, but how willing are we to play the role of gutter, to do the dirty job for others to be successful or free?

Many lives are getting ruined every day, full of potholes of hopelessness, abuse, hatred, unforgiveness, ignorance, etc. Who will come to their aid? They may see people willing to patch up those potholes, but they don’t have any medium to pour this flood of negativity they are soaked in. Who will be their gutter? Are you willing to be a gutter to your siblings, students, parents, children, friends, society, or nation? 

This is a call to action. Being called a gutter is offensive, but the imperative role it plays in other lives should be your focus and utmost desire.

At a time like this, we all need to be a gutter; we all need to be a road!

Hope you won't mind.