Toyin Poju-Oyemade talks to Moses Ida-Michaels About His Book Collide

 In the latest episode of the popular talk show, Chapters, Toyin Poju-Oyemade talks with Moses Ida-Michaels about his book Collide.  A first-time author Moses spoke about the process of writing and why he felt he needed to write the book. The first nugget about Collide is that it’s been seven years in the writing! Yes, the metamorphosis of which started with an initial number of 500 pages. The title too was not only a mouthful but one that made it sound like a required text for a graduate programme in the behavioral sciences…Psych: Paradigm of a New Generation.  The finished version is half the original size, with ten chapters and about two-hundred and fifty pages in total.

The prompt to treat the various interconnected topics sprang from his experience as a pastor with hours of counselling under his belt. Sitting across newlyweds ready to call it quits after two weeks, a Harvard graduate living a dream life with severe depression and countless others set him on the journey to help with a solution to questions that have been tabled over the years. The author described his creations as a book of everyday stories, a book of allegories of everyday happenings in the world. The format of using stories was with the vision to speak like Jesus did with his parables.

In its opening pages Collide kicks off with the question of Identity, what it is and means. Using celebrities as an example, Ida-Michaels gives us a glimpse of some of the dilemmas they also face. “Stars face an unprecedented amount of pressure to be that person we have all placed on a pedestal. To sing better, to dance smoother, to run faster to perform better. The hungry crowd relishes this surreal ideal of perfection.” Identity theft is premised on people imposing an identity on you because you do one thing so well and because of this…you can’t be anything else.

There’s a chapter also dedicated to pain. Moses Ida-Michaels boldly states, “People need to see pain for what it is, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Pain is a warning stimulus that helps the body sense danger and respond appropriately, withdrawing itself to safety. Pain prevents us from mortally wounding ourselves. We learn from pain that the things which cause us injury are to be avoided.” Listen and watch the entire video, but better yet get a copy of the book and dive in!