Month: October 2018

The world frightens me today – with the seemingly endless hatred and anger permeating from every corner of our existence.

Turn on the news, open social media, walk down the street – everywhere.  When did people get so angry, why are people so filled with hatred. What is it about the human psyche that feeds off the downfall of others.  Where does it come from, this dog eat dog mind set.  The human race appears to be simmering and just waiting to implode on its self.

I’m not sure if it is with the advent of social media that the hatred and toxicity is more prevalent today.  Was it always underlying, but without having the avenues to broadcast it as we have nowadays, it went unnoticed, and it was only by the gossiping over the fences that the ugliness was spread at a slight slower rate. Why can’t one human be happy for another – is it envy, self doubt, insecurity. Why does everyone seem so unhappy. (Generalising here)

Listening to the news, both locally and internationally, each sector of humanity has a distrust of the other. Exposing the other for any wrong doing that they perceive the others have done – almost like the Nazi Germany era where you could never trust your neighbour – and if you did you could get stabbed in the back.

But it is also in our daily lives that this negativity abounds.

It starts with each one of us – I know, I know – that this is the cliche that gets sent out with the requisite memes and many people just roll their eyes at them, but it is true.  If each one of us went out each day and decided to smile and find something good to say about our fellow man, what a better place this world would be.  Try it  – Just be kind! And you will be amazed at how good you feel.

Love thy neighbour, regardless of who they are or where they come from.  Just because they may be different and have different opinions, does not give anyone the right to ridicule or feel superior. We are all human and have feelings just like each other.  This latest shooting in America, makes me ill to my stomach, as I felt just the other day in my own daily life, when I had to be polite and diplomatic to a truly unnecessarily rude customer (part of the job) – the correlation is still there. But it is unnecessary. On the world stage or uncalled ugliness in our daily lives.  As my daughter commented to me a while back, “Mom, just feel sorry for the angry person, imagine waking up every morning and having to live with all that anger inside”.  Which I can understand, but how and why did that person get so angry to start off with.  What is the cure.  We are the cure.  JUST BE KIND!

The old adage, “The early bird catches the worm” has never been so true.  Rising before sun up for a run on a crisp spring morning,  through the sleepy village of Morgan Bay and stopping for a breather and perch up high atop the water reservoir overlooking the adjacent housing location and watch the world wake up, has to be one of the best ways to start a day.

The sun is just starting to peep out in all its glory above the far off clouds, which casts a soft golden glow on the shacks down below.  Each little home held together by brightly painted boards and gleaming corrugated iron. DIY electrical connections linking each little abode to a central pole, brings a sense of connection and togetherness to all who live here.

The only sounds wafting up the sides of the cold concrete reservoir is that of the barking dogs, scratching for scraps next to the growing pile of refuse, which has been dumped in a hollow in the ground and left to ferment.  The twittering birds have already started their day and the cry of a far off fish eagle brings a feeling of isolation and detachment from the rest of the world.

A young man saunters down the rutted sand road whistling a gentle tune, he is in no rush to get anywhere and appears content and at total peace with the world. A banging door draws attention to the grey haired grand mother starting her day of catering for the family still snug inside their humble abode.  She bends down slowly, hand on her back and gathers some fire wood.  She has been doing this by rote for so long it takes just minutes for her to get a roaring fire going, with the slight breeze sending that wood fire smell towards the reservoir. She then picks her way to the solitary tap, which supplies the only running water to the community,  where she fills a large yellow plastic container and hefts it onto her head to carry back to the makings of the family breakfast. An elderly gentleman appears in the doorway in a grimy white vest riding high above his portend stomach, he pats her on the back and ambles off to the one permanent structure off to the side of the community, to do his ablutions.

The peacefulness of the setting is broken with the arrival of an overloaded bakkie, backfiring down the road, filled with youth who have been lucky enough to be given a lift to the local town to start their work day.

This is the sign that the hustle and bustle of the day has begun, the sun is now more than just a glow in the sky, with the romantic light that was cast over these shacks dissipating and a harsher light now highlighting the plight of those living here.

This is everywhere in our daily lives but was brought home to me once again on my latest trip up to Johannesburg.

Boarding the flight, sitting cramped next to my fellow passengers in the cattle class, my neighbour in the adjacent seat, settled herself in and then got our her cell phone and proceeded taking literally hundreds of selfies, from every possible angle and facial expression.  The went through editing them all.

On my return trip, in the departure lounge, young girl sat herself down on the floor at my feet, took out all her toiletries and set up her cleansing/make station again on the adjacent seat, and proceeded with her cleansing routine followed by pimple squeezing and then the layers of makeup, finishing off when the flight was called, again with taking a selfie.  Feel a bit like a mother grundy, but is there no longer  a time or place for things in this chaotic life that we live.

But then on typing this and my mind once again going faster that I can type, is this blog of mine also not a form of self obsession.

But then we all as individuals are self obsessed.  We all worry about what others may think, whereas they are not thinking about us at all, as they are thinking about what we are thinking about them and so the cycle goes.  Simple example of this – as having been a mother of teenagers, who did not want to go out because they had a zit on their forehead and didn’t want people staring and my question to them was, “If ……… had a zit on their forehead and you bumped into them at the mall, what would you think”. Their answer was a sheepish “Nothing”.

At the end of the day we are all human and have self doubt, whether you are a brain surgeon or a street sweeper, we are all wired the same and have the same doubts and concerns.  But the degree of this self obsession has taken on a totally new level and it is scary in its extremes.

So remember next time you see someone with a zit on their forehead, know how self conscious they are feeling and don’t insist on taking a selfie with them.

Photo courtesy – Breaking the Illusion of Self Obsession – You Tube