This Sunday I spent my day in Pietermaritzburg waiting for my significant other to finish his first ever Comrades. I never thought I’d say this but it was an amazing experience, it’s a phenomenal event that attracts people from all walks of life.
I found myself surrounded by a cross section of South Africans united for a common purpose. It was mind-blowing! We were a group of people so fundamentally different united by something as insignificant as a running race. Who would have thought? Compare this year-upon-year support to the paltry 7000 individuals the ‘million man march against crime’ managed to garner. That’s somewhat sad.
Comrades will succeed where these ‘marches fail’ because it is about the human touch. It’s about complete strangers helping each out. Runners and supporters you’ve never met spur you on when all you want to do it quit. They don’t do it for money or fame but rather because it’s in the spirit of the race. Comrades displays South African’s at their finest! If only this attitude could seep out into everything we do.
As a nation we’re a bit like a spoilt child – one minute we’re delightful and the next we’re so obnoxious that even our own family considers putting us up for adoption. We’ve become so obsessed with protecting our own that we’ve forgotten what we can achieve together! As a country we are filled with passionate, intelligent and funny people. We should see this everyday, not just during an event like Comrades.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2008.
We read about, we watch it on TV and in our hearts we all know that it’s vital to the success of a relationship but how many of us actually remember to play hard to get? Sure it’s easy when you don’t really like the other person. Nonchalant could be our middle name when the heart isn’t involved.
There are many of us who wish we could carry this indifferent attitude over to the meaningful men or women in our lives, but alas something weird happens to us when that feelings-switch is turned on. We go, for lack of a better phrase, a little loco. We don’t mean to, our heads are screaming reasons not to, but we can’t help ourselves. It’s as if we are possessed by a force great than … no it’s just as if we are possessed.
We go from perfectly sane men and women, ones who know the importance of having their own lives, friends, adventures and doors to slam to people who should be restrained for ‘stalker like behavior’ and confined in straight jackets with fetching drool bibs.
I have no idea what it is that comes unhinged. I suppose we could all be squeaky doors to begin with. The kind that not even a liberal dose of Q10 can fix. Perhaps I’m looking at this all wrong? Maybe the mistake is not that we don’t play hard to get but rather that we let our heads navigate territory better known by our hearts?