Is this real life?

The other day I went to go watch a movie and I was really inspired to express my view of what I thought of the movie. The movie was well written, the filming was good, the actors were even better and everything about the movie was well done, it was the total package... at least that's what I thought.

Most of us are looking for the silver lining in life, we always look for the positive in the negative, and a few days ago I realised I was probably one of the few people in the world who always looked for the positive in the negative.

Upon watching this AMAZING movie I slowly but surely started to realise that seeing the positive in the negative is very much overrated. The world is supposed to have negatives; the shoe is always going to drop when you have a good thing going. It’s like complimenting someone on their beauty and then when they open their mouth you are met with this overwhelming whiff of decayed fish from the fish market. Yes the shoe has to drop, this is life and life does not always have happy endings. I guess what i'm saying is that the ending of the movie SUCKED because it was a happy ending.

But lets look at things differently, let me ask you this question; what if your life did not have a happy beginning and you had a rough start to life, does this mean that you are almost going to have a happy ending? When you were born in poverty will you die rich? And if you answered yes how long will you enjoy your riches? I ask this question because the character had a rough start but ended up having a happy ending. 

I know for a lot of Africans this is not always the case, if you are born in poverty the chances of getting out are very slim, but look on the bright side there is a chance non-the less… right? 

But let’s not dwell on the negative, let’s focus on the positive for a little bit. We all have a shot at true love, we all can overcome the challenges we are faced with when we are backed up against the ropes, we all have the will and the drive to live and survive, all of us were born with the ability to be übermensch… but how do we release this potential?

But back to the movie, the ending of the movie was horrible and unrealistic; this is what I call 'romantic farce'. Its annoying because the movie touched on real issues and it delivered everything as if it was real, for the duration of the movie I was lost in this ever changing world of intrigue, I even thought this was how normal people lived their lives in other countries. But the ending reminded me that this is a movie.

This piece I’m writing is supposed to be short and concise, I don’t want to bore you, and waste your Precious time, but I do want to ask you this:  Does every cloud have a silver lining? 

The forgotten

As we grow older we all forget things, we tend to have this tendency to remember things that we interact with on a more regular basis. It’s a new year and some of us have resolutions to see through.

I know what you are thinking, “this guy is going to tell us what to do in the New Year, dam Alpheus  you are such a tired cliché”. If you are thinking that well let me enlightened on a little knowledge.

In the New Year we should remember the forgotten, or at least we should try to remember the forgotten for a day… or seven… every day.

Bear with me here. Try to think back and remember what is important and you might find that some, if not all that you have forgotten is the essence of your being, or the beginning of your being.

I’ll talk about myself to put things in perspective. When I was born (like most of us) I was born into the language of IsiZulu, this was the language my mother whispered into my ears every night and every morning when I was a little baby, she did this until I could understand the words and I could speak the words. She gave me meaning through a language and she gave me a name through this beautiful language. I say IsiZulu is beautiful because my mother was beautiful, she taught me the language and the language became beautiful because of my mother.

Before my mother’s beauty interferes with you trail of thought, let’s get back to want we are talking about.

As I grew up, I was unaware that I was slowly but surely forgetting my language, or at least I was forgetting the essence of the language. I was too preoccupied with what I thought was the future, the way forward for our country. I got distracted and I forgot… I forgot my mother’s whisper … I forgot the words.

I have realised this and I now see that the language I first came to understand is dying. There is no two way about it. I have come to understand a different language so well that I have ignored my own. Because I have ignored my language it has not progressed like the language I use every day. My language (because of me) has been stagnant and if I were to continue to ignore it, it would fade away into a distant memory. Unfortunately I’m not the only one who has forgotten their language in this wonderful and divers country of ours.

I’m appealing to everyone; don’t forget your mother’s whisper. Remember the fallen.