Here is the transcript of the lecture given by MR. Leke Alder at #TRIBE2025.

Hello Family,

On Saturday, the December 21, 2024, we hosted Mr.Leke at #TRIBE2025 and I promised to share the content with my PAID SUBSCRIBERS.

So here am I honoring my word.

His lecture was an instructive piece (as usual) and I have read it at least 5 times.

It is your time to feast on it and if you aren’t a PAID SUBSCRIBER yet, but you desire to receive exclusive content from me, please join and unsubscribe anytime.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………© Leke Alder 2024

Let me begin by thanking Oyinkan for putting this together year after year. It’s very charitable of her because she’s democratising her access.

Incidentally, she calls me “Pops.” Now, I don’t know if that means popcorn or popsicle, or she’s telling me I’m a senior citizen. Whatever it is, it’s emotional blackmail. I start to wind down for the year about this time of the year, and so it takes extra effort for me to do this.

It’s been a particularly long year for me, though it seems rather short. January was only yesterday. I can therefore say the year is long and short at the same time. The reason the year is long is because of the heaviness of the things I’ve had to contend with, and it is rather short because so much has happened in the year. I am however thankful. Please note that thankfulness is different from thanksgiving, the former being a state of the heart, the latter being a physical demonstration of appreciation. We never have a problem with thanksgiving, our problem is with thankfulness. And that’s because we tend to concentrate on what we don’t have, rather than what we have. Our thanksgiving tends to be based on what I call the law of criticality.

That law states that our sense of appreciation is governed by the fulfilment of a critical need. That means for example, that if a man (or a woman) desperately wants a child, that even though God has answered 1003 out of 1004 of his prayers, for as long as a child is not on that list he will never feel grateful. This explains why Mrs. Elkanah, Prophet Samuel’s mother, could not be consoled even though her husband dotted on her.

She wanted a child. Mr. Elkanah loved his wife. He bought her designer shoes and bags - Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Gucci... She went on boat cruises, visited Paris, London, Milan... But nothing could satisfy her. At a point, Mr. Elkanah had to ask, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Of course, he’s not! He doesn’t understand the law of criticality.