IF

Our daily lives are replete with conditional decisions embodied in the two-letter word “IF”. Many of these decisions are intuitive.
There had never been a bigger IF in my life as when in 1906 my grandfather decided to focus his concern to his newly born child rather than spending time mourning his dead wife. My grandmother died in childbirth of her first child and my grandfather must have been caught between mourning for his wife and taking care of his orphaned baby. If my grandfather had not concentrated on saving his son and the baby died, I and many offsprings of that baby would not have existed. That is why I see this as the greatest IF in my life.
IF is a versatile word used in various contexts to express possibilities, conditions, and positive or negative consequences. “IF” introduces a condition or a hypothetical situation that has implications for what follows.

IF, when used in negotiation and planning, states actions that must be fulfilled for certain conditions to be met. It is of the form: “If you agree to my terms, then we can proceed with the deal or move to another level of negotiations.” The world has been following the conditional negotiations between Hamas and Israel as the war in Gaza rages on. We hear reports of IF Israel withdraws its forces and IF there is a permanent cease-fire then Hamas would release the Israeli hostages. Belligerent sides in all ongoing conflicts, whether in Myanmar or Sudan or Ukraine etc, have conditions (IFs) to end the conflict. I am not musing over the integrity of the IFs.

Very often we express regret in hindsight that if we had acted in a particular way what happened would not have occurred. For example, take an extreme and dramatic incident where a tree branch falls on someone walking past a tree by the road. That is an incident that happens at a particular point in time. One could say that if that person had not stopped to talk to a friend ten minutes back the tree branch would not have fallen on him. This is a quasi-hypothetical IF. If the sequence of events that led to a specific outcome had been interrupted, in other words resulting into an entirely different sequence, the observed outcome would not have occurred. For example, if your mother had married a different man or your father married a different woman you would not have been born.

When anticipating something that could be dependent on other happenings, we pray that those contingent events happen (if they are positive) or do not happen (if they are negative) for what we are anticipating happening. For example, in my book Fork in the road, I narrate an auspicious meeting with a visiting Scottish professor when I was in the final year at university. After an extensive talk over my plans, which were none, he said that he could get me into the University of Aberdeen to pursue a master’s degree provided that (in other words IF) I did well in my exams. The anticipation for this opportunity motivated me to study even harder and achieved the good results demanded for admission to Aberdeen University.

Then there is the IF of concern (anxiety) which is of the form: If such and such an event occurs, then an unwanted event will or may unfortunately occur. In Uganda we have regions in the East and West that are prone to floods and landslides during rainy seasons. Every year there is concern that if the rains are excessive there may be landslides and floods in the prone areas with possible loss of life. This is an IF situation for which little can be done in the short-term to mitigate it.

I may be splitting hairs, but I feel that there is also the IF of concern (worry) is of the form: If such and such an event does not stop, then a worrisome event will or may unfortunately occur. Traffic in Kampala is clogged by errant motorcyclists, a danger to all road users including themselves. It is a constant worry that unless authorities tame them (i.e. unless they stop their crazy behaviour) chaos on the roads will continue and more road deaths are going to occur. This is an IF situation that can be mitigated if the leaders had a will to do so.

Then there is the IF of relief. How often do we console ourselves that if a specific event occurs, then thankfully a desirable consequential event will occur. During the occasional oppressive sticky days, how much do we pray for relief if it were to rain. Another example, farmers in Uganda keep on wishing for “good” rains from season to season, not too much but just right, for good yields. Other examples, if only the elected leaders would think of the people who elected them life would be better for the common person. If only stealing public resources was contained social services would be adequately funded. There are almost unlimited examples one can come up with of relief consequent to a specific action.

Then there is the IF with instruction or command implications. Mothers are for ever giving ultimatums to their errant children to change their behaviour. Threatening them with some form of punishment if they do not behave as they are told. Telling them “If you do not do this or that I will not give you this or that”. While some of this may be a bluff, the person being threatened will take it seriously depending on their age and how often the same threat is used. For example, when we moved to Switzerland, one of our daughters was four years old and we placed her in an English-speaking school for about a year. During that year, her mother used to threaten reporting her to the school principal if she misbehaved at home. A threat she took seriously and was a controlling mechanism. When we moved her to a Swiss French-speaking neighbourhood school, her mother tried the usual threat of reporting her to her teacher, for which she replied “how are you going to talk to her? You do not speak French”. Mother was zipped. That was the end of that conditional threat.

Conditional threats can carry very serious consequences unlike the example I have just given. For example, if leaders and parents do not take comprehensive approaches on policies, preventive programs, education and healthcare interventions, to fight the unprecedented alcohol and substance abuse, of epidemic magnitude, among young people, there are going to be far-reaching national consequences, impacting various aspects of society.

I have found musing over this two-letter word challenging. In all these examples, “IF” introduces a condition or a hypothetical situation that has implications for what follows. It’s a versatile word used to express possibilities, conditions, and consequences. It is everywhere in our lives. Life is built on conditional bricks and ladders. Almost all our actions are a response to explicit or implicit IFs. If you read up to here, then ……
Cheers.

Thank you for being part of the Fork in the Road Blogs: Reflections on Life. Be sure to look out for the next episode when I will be writing about Statistics. If you gathered something useful, please feel free to share the blog. My books, Fork in the Road: Creating a future of value starting from where you are and A view round the bend. Setting goals for your life’s journey are available for purchase at Aristoc bookshops in Kampala, Uganda and online at Amazon.

Your comments on my musings are most welcome and let me know whether there is a topic you would like me to muse over.