Though my heart hungers to write for this country of ours, I just can't seem to find the time. At least I get to talk about it a LOT - and get pro-expatriates thinking, and encourage repatriates or potential repatriates in the return home. But still... I just feel like it's not enough.
Speaking of pro-SA activism, an expat friend of mine just messaged me to ask if I still have Julius Malema's cellphone number. My first reaction was humiliated hurt. Because I failed miserably - letting many fellow patriots down, and delighting many skeptics. Or - DID I fail?
Here follows the messaged chat:
D: Do you have Malema's cell number still?
Me: 1. It turned out to be a really sh*tty idea.
2. But: it sparked the most amazing healing and transformational debate after my story was published in various newspapers and news blogs both in SA and the UK.
3. It got thousands of South Africans thinking after my interviews were aired on the headline news bulletins on Cape Talk, Radio 2000, Highveld Stereo and Kfm.
4. I made some very special friends.
5. I facilitated some fiery confrontations which started in pain, woundedness, mistrust and disappointedness - and which ended in phenomenal transformation and relational healing.
Sometimes we have to risk looking foolishly, madly, idiotically idealistic to achieve a deeper-lying victory than the first, superficial thrust of our mission.
(Why did I 'fail'? Because I came home. And coming home consumed me entirely: my time, my love, my energy, my mind, my creativity. Being there for my little daughter was critically more important for me than nurturing my revolution of patriotic, open-minded, transforming love. I had to put my ego aside as I chose to fail so I could win. Ah - I'm a saint, aren't I? *wry eyebrow raising*)
And so, with Blackberry hand-cramp setting in, it is time to say adios till my next rare and random pocket of free time.
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!
4 comments:
Well, I think you have your priorities in the right order. As Winston C said: "Never, never give up!"
Hey there, I am curious how you can even put Malema in the same sentence as Megamind! But while you are at it, can you tell us, other than YLP, what job does he do?
@Trygve: This Malema thing is going to continue for a number of years still, and I am STILL determined to get South Africans thinking --- and RE-thinking everything about our country: but most especially about we each carry a very special right and responsibility to be a ciitizen: to be involved, proactive and proud. (This tendency to dwell on the MYTHOLOGIES of crime and corruption is a universal human trait - just read any newspaper spanning the globe. BUT: South Africans, I believe, after having lived and travelled far and wide, have the X-factor when it comes to mindset and heart: we are a nation of joyous and loving people. But sometimes, this takes elbow-grease and courage: root out the REAL statistics and refuse to succumb to the opiate of The Spectacle (see social theorist/anthropologist Guy de Bord for more). The Spectacle is what sells newspapers and advertising space - enriching tycoons instead of enriching us. The day Layla goes to school I will be back on the radio and on TV to reinstate the News Revolution. What's exciting about it is that I have so many newspapers and radio stations officially backing me! Watch this space (*wink*)
@The Devine Wards: Thank you for leaving a comment :) I am sure that you guys appreciate the sense of community/communion that comments lend the blogging experience. What would be the point of blogging without readers. I just wish more readers would actually interact. Most people say they don't jot down their thoughts/reactions/questions out of fear of ridicule for either grammar, spelling or 'dof' ideas. So, thanks :)
Megamind is an animated film that my 2-year old is besotted about! He is a sky-blue, massive-headed villain who suffered devastating rejection and a broken home as a child, and as hard as he tries to commit evil, he makes a fool of himself. He has, however, a kind heart and longs only for love and for people to be proud of him.
Perhaps I joined 'Megamind' in the same sentence as 'Malema' on a subconsciously purposeful level - because when I wrote the post I was writing about my current busy-ness as a mother where I have had to hang up my boxing-gloves and take up the needle, for my child's sake.
As so often happens when I write about Malema, anger at him and what he represents (i.e. the collapse of South Africa and a white holocaust) clouds the heart's logic of too many South Africans so that they aren't able to fully enter into the idea my Malema Project espouses: that we need to engage with each other: encounter each other in the most humble humanity we can each muster. And I have proven that it is exactly this kind of open and non-aggressive/accusatory dialogue that creates healing. I wonder if you would like to read more about the work we've done? Malema himself followed the progress of the project and --- at the height of it, apologised. Close contacts of his confirmed the project's effect on him. Maybe we shouldn't give up so easily? Maybe we can try again. He is too much like Hitler, too pissed off and too racist, too 'stupid' and rebellious for the average human heart to pray for. (The final phase of the project was for all of its members to meet with Julius to talk with him. This is a powerful idea. But I'm running out of time. Time to be a mommy again...) Please have a browse through the other articles here (they are reprinted in SA The Good News, and London: The South African and Homecoming Revolution. The podcasts of my interviews can be found on Kfm, Cape Talk, Radio 2000 and Highveld Stereo which all made headline news.) I'd love to hear back from you after you've read a little more about this whole shebbang! Adios, Lisa
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