Marriage. I am very old school so to me it seems as though the world has gone crazy when it comes to family life. In Europe at least, people don’t get married anymore. They have partners that they live with. I don’t get it.
I’ve only been married for a couple of years, but I can tell you this, it’s the way to go. Marriage isn’t bliss by any stretch of the imagination. There are days when it straight up sucks. And unlike living with someone, you lose your rights and space and individuality. But what you get in return (provided you picked the right person) is loyalty, companionship, a shoulder and ‘thereness’. Commitment costs, but it is so worth it.
This business of living together….maybe I’m just a backward African, but I know a recipe for disaster when I see one. Why people feel the need to cheat life’s fundamentals is beyond me. That’s my unsolicited 2 cents.
If I have offended you, please think of it as a loving friend telling it like he sees it.
I’ve been struggling these last few days. I got my first cheque from my writing not too long ago and it felt great! It was only a few hundred Euros, but it felt good to be earning again. The only thing is that I now felt quite a bit of pressure to at least maintain that income. Coincidentally, that was the time I seemed to hit a brick wall in terms of creative inspiration. It never rains…
So I was getting pretty worked up. I’ve even neglected this blog a bit. I was too preoccupied to keep this going at full pace. It was all a little much and I was wondering whether I really had a future as a writer. Reading about Mbeki’s writing prowess and general brilliance didn’t help either. It left me feeling more than a little jealous and a bit pathetic. I know, a little over the top.
Anyway, I was in the library today to do a little reading. Being the great procrastinator that I am, I decided to start by going through the newspaper. I found an article there I disagreed with so strongly that I whipped out my laptop and in about three quarters of an hour had my first draft done. I’ll polish it up over the weekend and email it to the boss on Sunday evening.
I literally feel like there’s a weight that has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I can deal with all the things I’ve let slide. And in a couple of days, I can start to worry about the next article. My life certainly isn’t boring!
I’m about a third of the way through Thabo Mbeki’s biography, The Dream Deferred, and I’m riveted!
I’m in awe of Mbeki. It’s more than how much he gave up that strikes me. He was so totally committed to his cause and worked tirelessly towards his role. He is obviously brilliant in so many ways. Everyone who knew him well, friend or foe, acknowledge his charm and intelligence. In his early twenties he was leading anti-aparteid initiatives and meeting world leaders.
There’s a sense of gravity and purpose to him that I envy. He seems to have known his destiny from early childhood, and more impressive, how to attain it. Granted, his heritage was such that he always had incredible mentors around him, but they wouldn’t have taken him on were it not for the potential they saw in him. Neither Mandela nor Tambo’s children got the kind of attention that Mbeki received because they didn’t have the qualities he had.
Why has Thabo Mbeki struck such a chord in me? I want my life to have the kind of meaning his has had. I want to help build my country and continent as he has tried to do. I want to spend time with leaders and future leaders and discuss ideas on governance, society, justice and how to make the world a better place. And I want to have a mentor.
Thabo had Oliver Tambo. What I would give for a little time and some direction from Thabo Mbeki…
A couple of years ago, I shared a house with some friends. It was great. It was like going to your buddies’ place to hang out over the weekend without ever having to go home. We ended up being in each other’s business a lot but incredibly, we never really suffocated each other.
One of the things the three of us did was go to a gym in the morning together. Because work generally starts at 0800 in Zimbabwe, we’d have to get out of bed by about 0545. Staying up till 0200 playing FIFA on Playstation didn’t really help. And yes, Playstation is alive and well in sub-Saharan Africa.
We found that if we repeated, ‘today is going to be a great day’- despite being groggy and with eyes half shut – more often than not that’s how things worked out. The days we didn’t perform our ritual normally turned out badly on the gym front at least.
I know it sounds very ‘self help’ and unoriginal, but the truth is the truth, even when it isn’t fly. The things we say tend to alter our perception and our feelings are all about perception.
With that in mind, THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT WEEK! You’re welcome to join in.
If maths class had been this interesting…I was about to lie.
Still, this really clever video is based on Jessica Hagy’s blog, Indexed. Were it not for the huge pile of unread books on my little shelf, I’d be very tempted to get hers.
