I’ve broken many eggs in my days. Dropped an egg, hit an egg by mistake, crushed an egg with a heavy bag and even sat on an egg but one thing I never did was put all my eggs in one basket except when it came to men. It’d have been awful to break a whole crate of eggs after spending four hours in Bariga market just because my shopping bag gave way or my basket was hit by a speeding okada man. I however have not learnt the act of separating my eggs where the men I date are concerned, nope, they always end up in the same basket and I am left to clean up the goo when my big ole basket of a heart gets broken…After my last breakup, a worldly wise almost-sister-in-law chastised me for putting all my eggs in one basket (her brother’s basket!
) That got me thinking, and I decided to do a l’il research on this precious idiom, after all even if mama was all about her eggs, whoever formed the idiom couldn’t have been a superficial egg-protector unless he was a chicken!To “put all your eggs in one basket” is to risk everything on a single opportunity which, like eggs breaking, could go wrong. Letting your success/happiness depend on a single person or plan of action makes everything dependent on that one thing so if the basket is dropped, all is lost. This must have been a very important principle for poultry farmers who made their money from selling eggs. The family would go hungry if such a disaster occurred but it seems Naija girls have become 21st century poultry farmers, (not sure if calling us chicks has helped
). No sharp babe wants to put her eggs in one basket, after all kasala fit burst.There are all sorts of dispersion of eggs going on nowadays. One case scenario is common among the average city girls. Many of them cannot imagine not having two men. A rich and very-married maga to pay house rent, buy the fabulous clothes and the brazilian hair and maintain her expensive lifestyle and a good-enough-to-take-home-to-mama young man, usually struggling, to pose as boyfriend. Many times the boyfriend knows he is being played but isn’t bothered cos of the material benefits of dating a ‘bigz gurl’ and besides, he usually has a nice, thought-to-be-well-brought-up girl in a city far away. A vicious cycle but whoever plays the game best wins… and there are no rules
More commonly, you have a man with a chick-on-the-side or a girl with two boyfriends and these people could be spokespersons for Dunlop as their slogan is; ‘you never know when you’ll need a spare’
They claim that trusting a woman or man is a sure-banker for a heartbreak as you have no idea what the other person’s agenda is. Let’s not even begin to talk about being faithful…Since I’m against double-dating at the moment for the silly reason that I believe in love and dating two men at the same time can be more mentally tasking than getting a Nigerian on the moon, besides drama queen that I am, I still haven’t discovered a good enough line to give a man if I ever get caught cheating and Nollywood isn’t helping! So far, the most used line is still ‘I swear na devil cause am!’ which is even lamer than Shaggy’s ‘It wasn’t me’ so I gathered a few points from here and there to justify the foolhardiness of putting all your eggs in one basket!
Here goes…
1) You only have one egg.
2) You need all your eggs, so dropping a basket with only some of your eggs is as bad as dropping a basket with all your eggs.
3) Last time you tried multiple baskets you couldn’t carry them all and wound up dropping some.
4) Having only one basket was good enough for your ancestors, so it’s good enough for you.
5) Because you went to a pastor and he confirmed that it was OK.
6) It looks like one basket is going to be the fad this season.
7) You are going to make scrambled eggs anyway.
8) The probability of breakage does not exceed the cost of additional baskets.
9) You’re a fatalist — the eggs are all going to break anyway.
10) You are rebelling against your mother who told you to never keep all your eggs in one basket.
For more reasons to keep all your eggs in one basket, go to http://herbison.com/herbison/broken_eggs.htmlBehold, the fool saith, `Put not all thine eggs in the one basket’–which is but a manner of saying, `Scatter your money and your attention’; but the wise man saith, `Put all your eggs in the one basket and–watch that basket!‘
The business owner who puts all his eggs in one basket isn’t foolish, he’s committed. So peeps take care of your basket, your man or woman signed up for a 100% of your love and attention and not minute measures and if after all is said and done, your basket falls and the eggs get broken, be rest assured that they were rotten eggs even if they smell good (that’s just his expensive perfume), be thankful you didn’t have to carry them home.
Chutzpah yellow pages coming soon…
So take that risk, enough with all the insurance covers! The cow way no get tail, na God dey pursue the flies! (still one of my favorite quotes) Have a lovely day peeps…xoxoxo
