The first three words in Dr. Scott Peck’s book THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED, are: “Life is difficult.” [My cursive]
Well, well, if you buy that story, then I think you
are precluded from complaining even in the face of load shedding in South
Africa; maybe from life threatening illness? Why is that? I submit to you that
these words LIFE IS DIFFICULT takes out the sting; it takes out the “why me,
Lord?”; it takes out the bite: because life is difficult. And complex. And a
fantasy [not always resembling Tim Burton’s NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS]. A
mystery: just have a look at your own life and ask what would have happened if
you did not take the turns that you took? Well, that is maybe too far fetched a
scenario. Let’s stay at the place where you and I are; let’s be acutely aware
that we are alive and not dead [unless you stopped living before your actual
death; you stopped laughing; stopped doing new and fresh things; stopped
developing and stopped developing your mind; stopped being in awe of life;
stopped looking at the symmetry in plants; stopped looking at stones and so if
you stopped living you are in trouble.
No. I don’t want you to resemble my life or to do what
I do or to think how I think. I hope you get the drift of my argument.
I overheard a snippet of a radio interview with this gentleman [listening to his voice, it is clear that he is not a youngster neither is he charismatic] who, very clear and calmly asserted that humans are created to be creative! And I echo that in this blog post: we are created to be creative! Stop complaining! Create something! Anything! Start sketching. Plant a plant and watch it growing. Cut open a tomato and marvel at the symmetry. Think that each and every pip is a potential plant with potential tomatoes.
My daughter and son-in-law gave me an incredible
birthday present. They gave me a toy! Yes, at my age at 73, I got a toy as a
birthday present. You watched my video I took last night during load shedding
of this Star Wars Millennium Falcon. When Eskom allowed me to have electricity
at 22:30 I went back to my dining room table and continued building. It was so
quiet. It was so dark outside. And me sitting building this outrageous,
preposterous and over the top “thing.” No, I am not a Star Wars fanatic. But that
thing, the Millennium Falcon, caught my attention and I am in its grip; it is
fascinating. The problem with this lot is when you are so deeply involved in
building it, it is hard going to bed; you simply cannot “switch off” as it
were. Eventually when sleep overpowers you, you go into a deep peaceful sleep.
The next four images show you the construction process going on.
T[G]o play! T[G]o be creative!
Maybe you are interested to built jigsaw puzzles; I am
aware that you do get even 3d puzzles. Or you are besotted with cross-word
puzzles. Reading is absolutely essential; without it you’ve had it, my friend.
It is over with you! Keep on reading and keep on reading difficult literature;
why do you want to keep on reading the easy stuff? No, go for the difficult
stuff. I cringe when I visit and I don’t see books especially when it is academically
trained people – no books any where to be seen? Maybe a magazine!
Keep on reading the latest developments in your
primary training career. My career of choice, law, is not static. A guiding
principle is that the law is not a chemical process neither is it mechanical;
it is people driven. I am driven to keep up with developments in my career
choice; at the moment I am rather deeply in researching international human migrations.
It impacts heavily on the South African society and our people that are leaving
these sunny shores, for other countries are impacting those countries. My
country’s roots are deeply embedded in international migration: we are a
diverse lot in the rainbow nation.
Migration does have its own peculiarities and its own
synergies.
Back to basics: what are you doing with your time? Life
is still difficult, not so? But life is even fantasy and most definitely mysterious.
Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za
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