2 more months and the year is goneski! Sitting here in the
Eastern Cape just about to head to Coffee Bay tomorrow to meet some of my old
classmates for our 20-year matric reunion! 20years already! Where has the time
gone?
Speaking about time…about a month ago, I was fortunate to
attend this festival in the middle of the Nevada dessert called Burning Man. I
didn’t really know too much about it bar that it was in the middle of the
dessert and it was going to be hot, my 2 most favourite environments…NOT! But I
was reminded of a dear friend who passed almost 2 years ago and we always used
to go on about “One Life” so I said what the hell, booked on a Friday, left on
the Saturday. Darn good decision it was. It’s an environment where people are
just human. Everyone greets everyone, people engage in deep meaningful,
sometimes not so meaningful when the person you are talking to is as high as a
kite, but it was such a pleasure. People accepting each other for who they are,
as they are irrespective of any and everything, for that week we were all
Simunye….oh we are one, we were all Burners. To me that was the essence of the
human spirit, I mean for example we had a camp across the way from us where the
guys would wake up every morning and make oatmeal for whoever came with a bowl,
in the afternoon they would offer hot dogs, others would give booze, bandannas,
lights etc. It was beautiful.
During my time there, there was peace, time to stop and
think and reflect. One thing that I really reflected on was how so angry the
world I find myself in has become and is actually getting worse. How we as
humans in my little world are too quick to judge others based on their
difference rather than to embrace it. For example just the other day, I was
having a conversation with a really good friend of mine and she quipped “Yaw I
would so marry you if you weren’t black”. Not that I wanted to marry her but in
my head I thought SHAME, how sorry I feel for you in your limited world!
A week ago, I was having a random yarn with one of my oldest
friends. A few years ago, he saw the light and became born again, some of us
haven’t reached that same level of Christianity, note I say Christianity and
not spirituality, because I do believe in my God, but in the same way I have
the utmost respect for all other religions. I even spent some time
investigating Islam once upon a time, yes there was a woman involved, but that
is beside the point ;). I spent a lot of time with Muslims and they were really
good people to each other and to those around. They weren’t about judging
others but more about this is who we are and what we do fullstop. That’s one
thing that I struggle with regarding a lot of Christians.
Anyway back to my story about my mate, just out of the blue
he labels me a heathen, a forkin HEATHEN. I was stunned and I thought to myself
the God I follow, who in my mind is the same Christian God he follows, isn’t
one to look down on others, but in my unenlightened mind is one who would want
me to help others reach a level of enlightenment through observing how I
conduct myself with respect to others and myself. Not through shunning others
who are not like me.
It brings me to the point of those heinous murders in Kenya
and Nigeria all in the name of Religion. B##ch please!! God never asked you to
kill those people, your demented mind chose to do that. Christians are the same
if not worse. Crusades, Hitler, apartheid all have religion as the centerpiece.
Why must we use our differences to define us? Why can we not
use our differences to build us? There is more than enough space in this world
for all of us to live a rich and fulfilled life1 What is wrong with my neighbor
being a white, gay, Muslim, how does that make my life any worse off? Will it
change how I wake up, do my daily thing and go back to sleep? Like we even know
who our neighbours are nowadays, but God forbid we find out they are not ‘like’
us!!
Here’s one, let get over ourselves shall we, run our own
race, how the next person chooses to live their life should be of little our
concern, in the end only the God we serve can and should judge us!
Be well dear friends!
Much respect
Yaw
1 comment:
Well said!!!
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