Everyone's talking, no one's listening and people are miserable. I am miserable. There's too much to think about. The racism, the sexism, the privilege, the power. There's too much energy wasted on choosing our battles.
When should I say something? When should I let it slide? When do I stay in my lane and when do I switch it up with a massive Jeep and rip the terrain at its seams? These nagging thoughts become nagging feelings. And nagging feelings do not equal happiness.
But there are lucky ones. The tra-la-la ones. They breathe life into the "ignorance is bliss" adage with every exhalation. Bliss is a state of perfect happiness neatly packaged in shimmering obliviousness. When you're oblivious, happiness is always a hop, skip and a shrug away. Misery is for the mindful. Unfortunately.The unseeing of things makes the lives of the oblivious so easy. They do not have to suffer the aches of the diversity debacle for example, or the inequality battle. There are no bugbears in their lives, only honey pots.
I started to think of all the people I've come across in my life who were so proudly blind to the state of our country, blind to the struggles of its people and its politics.These South Africans live their lives with an absolute dedication to the "not knowing" of things. And just to be clear, the "not knowing" of things is different from the denial of things.
The "not knowing" club feeds its members unchallenged fantasies that in most cases are made of a rainbow nation filled with butterflies and unicorns and of course the obligatory Castle Lager advertisement made complete with a bit of sportsing (sic) in the background. After all, nothing shouts happiness like the toss of a rugby ball.The glossary is an index of life's many joys and how they are defined in different cultures. Heimat for example is something that makes Germans happy. It means: "A deep-rooted fondness towards a place to which one has a strong feeling of belonging."
None of the 11 languages in South Africa have a word for that feeling. This of course does not mean that feeling does not exist. But with all the colonialism, and the displacing of people and the fight to "give back the land", I bet my left kidney that no one is ecstatic about their roots in a place - especially if their belonging here is questionable.
The Norwegians are happy when they experience koselig: an all-encompassing physical and emotional coziness. In Norway, koselig is the happiness standard. Koselig is life in Norway. Koselig is the constant state of being warm inside by keeping things as simple and comforting as they can possibly be.Imagine two South Africans engaged in a conversation about racism. One person is talking from personal experience because they know what racism feels like, and the other is overwhelmed with joy because he or she wants to use every fibre of their being to listen.
Now ... wouldn't that be kwaai? (South African street slang for the top form of coolness.)..