Thoughts and Other Things

Passion is stupid. It doesn't care how much you'll get paid, doesn't ask how many hours you'll have to work, doesn't bother who'll take note and applaud and doesn't concern itself with the risks. Passion only cares about the butterflies in your stomach, the sparkle in your eye and 'unmanipulatable' feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that meets the end of each task. My father is one to always question my passion-driven ventures. I was ecstatic when I went to collect the documents I'd need for registering marriages from the Home Affairs department. It was a Monday, and I was having a very blue one, but it immediately turned yellow, pink and orange when I was told my exam results. I was jubilant, smiling like I was high walking through town. Once home, I was dancing like king David (only with all my clothes on) when daddy dearest attempted bursting my bubble. "So how much are you going to be paid for officiating a marriage?" I knew ...

I cut my hair a week before my new year. Not really a resolution, rather a build up of frustration from dealing with a transitioning mane. I hadn't used chemicals or heat on my hair for three months and I was starting to feel the heat (excuse the pun). My hair consisted of two textures and handling both was like trying to get water and oil to blend. So I jumped, I had my bc (big chop) - naturalists have their own vocabulary. I have what some will call 'steel wool' hair. It doesn't grow easily and it's as hard as rock when you try to comb it. All my mom knew to do with it was add chemicals to make it manageable, all my dad knew to do was chop it off...hence I look like a boy in a majority of my childhood photos. So my bc was dejavu, and the feelings that came along with it...you're a little less pretty, a little less girly, without big hair. That got me thinking of the contribution hair has to a woman's beauty. We'd obviously have to first define beau...

Last week I had a blast at youth sharing with them something I think is very important for young men to understand. Yep, men. No, I'm not a man and I don't desire to be one. But yes I have stuff for men; well God does, so don't shoot the messenger. On the basis on Genesis 2, we were exploring certain things that make one unprepared for marriage. Each point started with "you're not ready when", we'll do the same here. So here we go: you're not when... 1. You don't have a job! God gave Adam work before He gave him a wife (read Gen 2:15). You can be as spiritual as you want but you will not escape the fact that this world works with money, and if you don't have any, you just don't qualify for the position of husband, hayi kabi. The role of 'husband' needs you to be financially equipped; starting a family calls from you financially as much as it does psychologically. Jacob worked his seven years and Boaz had his fields, so until y...

I attended my youngest sister's prize-giving ceremony (they call it 'merit function' now) last night. It's exactly ten years since I've left so I was expecting some change, ten years is a long time,I could have gotten married and had babies in that time. Could have. To my disappointment, nothing much had changed. In our years, it was abit acceptable and understandable that the school was still adjusting to being bilingual,   but not today. The only English in all the speeches and presentations prior the handing out of the awards was in the quotes of the opening speech. Two quotes! Then there's the program. The only English there is the title of the event and the instructions, die res van die program is in die boer se taal. I'm not being offensive nor defensive, believe me you, I am fully aware of the challenges of mixed languages (and the cultures that come along with them.) I had heard how the junior phase parents of the English  medium had done wrong ...

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." I've always misunderstood this saying. I thought 'the tough get going' meant that they vacated the situation. Of course it didn't make any sense because tough people stick it out, they don't retreat in cowardice, so I always concluded that it was just one of those English things that I'd probably have to take a tertiary course in the language to fully comprehend. I recently looked it up (at the Google University of the Universe) and found that the saying relies on a difficult play on words. The first 'going' is a noun, referring to the situation or environment; whereas the second 'going' is a verb (because of the 'get' before it), it refers to the action of starting or becoming engaged. Another play is with the word 'tough': the first one is an adjective, describing the difficulty or hardness of the noun (going - situation); while the second 'tough' is a noun, ...