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Be glad when nothing happens
20/05/2008 13:06 - (SA)
David Moseley
The brief for this column is to write about day-to-day life and the supposedly endless stream of hilarity that emerges from the mundane. If there was good humour in every situation, though, sitcoms would induce a few more guffaws than they actually do.
Sure you have your "mom getting exasperated with whiney child in store" moments or "hey Carlo, there's a pig sitting inside the garage" days (seriously, there's a small farm up the road from my place. The pigs often escape - weirdly always around breakfast time - and provide no end of amusement for the civilised German tourists that inhabit the B&B's in my area).
As far as day-to-day goes, here's a sample, from last Tuesday to today:
Tuesday: wrote column about lunging. Not entirely sure why. Sat in the office and pretended to work. Bit stupid because it's my company and no one can really shout at me.
Wednesday: agonised for full day over whether I should ask girl out on date or not. No balls, so haven't popped the question. Skipped my run because too windy.
Thursday: worked, ran, made delicious chicken and mash concoction. Carlo still alive next morning, so couldn't have been that bad.
Friday: up at 06:00 for surf, no waves. Went to work, did nothing, went home, slept.
Saturday: ran, played putt putt, drank beer, swore at my mate Kevin because he said the Sharks are better than the Stormers, drank too much beer and got contemplative on the dance floor.
Sunday: surfed, ate pizza, drank a beer, came home and watched Carlo shout at the PlayStation (worth the price of admission alone).
Not much happens
Generally, not much happens. You'll also notice a distinct lack of suffering and hardship in my week. I think it's the same for most people. We got to work, we do our thing, we just try to get by. We have surfboards and mountain bikes and running shoes and PlayStations to lessen the tedium, to take our minds of the fact that world right now is not really in great shape.
What happens when you don't? What happens when you come home and you have little to liven up your day, when you're fighting over meagre foodstuffs or working 22 hours a day to feed a family? What happens when there are 100 pegs, but only 50 holes to put them in?
What happens when there are mindless thugs looking for an easy excuse for the sorry state that their lives are in? Bad things happen, that's what.
Why has the xenophobic rage spread through the Gauteng - and in smatterings across the country? Conspiracies abound: it's the voters that the ANC bussed in taking local jobs, it's the xenophobic tone of some leaders that make the beatings seem just, it's our lax border security allowing in too many, it's the IPL ruining Test cricket, it's the lazy South African worker with a sense of entitlement being usurped by his harder-working brother across the border, it's a lack of skills training and development with the local artisan sector forcing contractors to hire skilled foreigners, it's generally thuggery and maliciousness... and so on.
It's not a phenomenon that's unique to this country. The world is not as friendly as it used to be. It just seems that there's not enough of anything - food, water, empathy - to go around anymore.
And that's the day-to-day reality of the real world.
Send your comments to David.
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