Palmwine Riddim.

there’s nothing new under the sun.

I watched Suits for the first time many years ago. It was a fun show that made an impression on my impressionable mind at the time. However, like most media I consume, most of it is forgotten. Except one episode.

In that episode, Mike & Harvey’s client (a publishing company) is getting sued by a writer who accused them of stealing her work. While struggling to find an angle to approach it, Mike visits his grandmother and like all grandmothers, she has some advice for him. She says “there is nothing new under the sun.”

This inspires him to find older books with the same idea that the writer had and prove that it wasn’t exactly original.

While that was an episode about a smart lawyer and a grandmother’s wisdom, what I took from that was the interconnectedness of human beings.

At a certain level, deeper than physical characteristics and resemblances, humans exhibit traits or qualities that show this connection. We are connected in our desires to create, to worship, our need to find purpose and to find answers.

A few minutes ago, while taking a shower, I was listening to ‘Palmwine Riddim’ by Juls and realised that although it wasn’t exactly the same beat, I could sing The Cavemen’s ‘Ifeoma Odoo’ over it smoothly. These two different artistes with different creative processes and purposes had created similar work without intending it.

The first time I found out that ‘ẹnu’ is the Yoruba word for mouth, I was amazed at the similarities with its Igbo counterpart, ‘ọnụ.’ Connections.

A couple days ago on Twitter, a Ghanian accused Igbo people of stealing/appropriating their traditional cloth. After much debate, it was proved that Igbo people also have that particular cloth design in their culture.

But it really sucked that the ‘aggrieved’ individual could not think and marvel about the fact that our ancestors in the same region, albeit far from each other, had similar ideas. Connections.

I don’t have a real point with this except to say that the next time you get hung up on themes in your work and how similar they are, or might be to something else, remember that there is nothing new under the sun.

Also remember the beauty of humanity and our connections. There is no feeling that hasn’t been felt before, no problem that hasn’t been overcome. You are a human being, connected to billions of other human beings.

Let this random train of thought be a reminder that you are not alone.

Cheers.