writing does not stand in a vacuum

One's writing, that is what one writes and when one writes depend very much on one's state of mind. What happens, who said what and how affect one's emotional state and the desire to write creatively. It has been a tough few weeks for me. Mixed with a few good days, the bad ones just kept on coming back. My writing was affected big time. Central to these unhappy times was the reaction to the passing of the Information Bill. The discourse that was out there showed to me that my country has a far way to go to non-racialism. The way the racists reared their heads during this debate is sickening. I believe now that we will never get rid of them, when a racist dies, he/she makes sure that there is already another one taking his/her place. So one has to confront racism, do not pretend that it does not exist. I am surrounded by racists. Some are in one's face and some's are only visible when they turn their backs. Racism, "swart gevaar" tactics is alive and well in South Africa and I believe in the world! To them I say "bugger off, we can get along without you"

Songs to struggle with

We live in different times that is what he said and  I hope that is what he meant.

Now that we the former strugglers are in government we will have to accept our flaws. When we were soldiers fighting our heroic deeds hid our weaknesses, nobody had time to point them out, there was a bigger task at hand. Now we are free and there is nothing that can hide those flaws within us. And that is what we will have to accept. We could be prejudiced, we can be racist, we are capitalistic, we are selfish, in short there is no struggle to hide our mistakes, our faults. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, we are human beings. The big thing though is to accept this. The big thing is that the struggle goes on and if there are songs sung against injustice, against corruption and greed, they are now also sung against us, although we sang these very same songs in our struggle, others may sang these songs against us – and this we must accept. We should not look for false notes in these songs, if it was good enough then these songs should be good enough now – we wanted those songs to tickle the conscience of the unjust, these songs should now tickle our conscience. Let us live in such a way that we can keep on singing these songs, let us not stop the flow of the chords!

Today 3 November 2011

I am hard at work. Feel good about myself, working on my health, try to eat healthy. Aging is really a battle, not only is there war with one’s aches and pains, the changing figure creates new and different facts that I have to live with. Ah, but the opposite is also true. It is wonderful to be accepting of one’s changing figure and face, combined with the improved self-confidence, understanding of life and the world, one cannot but reflect with ease on day to day life. I understand so much more. I love so much more albeit in different ways. I am open to so much more. Gone is the narrow-minded thinking, the seeing of black and white only, ignorant of the grey! It is good to grow older, in fact, it is a blessing! Amandla!

It is lunchtime and I just had the most delicious piece of hake from Val’s Catering services here on our campus. There is just no way that anyone can beat the way Val’s Catering fries their fish. I also had a cup of soup that I made last night. It was a rather creatively mixed pot of soup I attempted last night. Thanks goodness it came out as a super supper! Yay, me and my cooking skills, still learning!

The days ahead will be full. I have to plan thoroughly. Will keep you posted.